Numerologists, your moment is about to arrive. Mathematicians and lottery players, you may want to pay attention, too. At three minutes and four seconds after 2 AM on Sunday, the 6th of May, time will align itself in a perfect pattern, 02:03:04 05/06/07.

For those who slept though last year’s 01:02:03 04/05/06 moment at 1:02 a.m. and three seconds on April, 5, 2006, this is your second chance. The moment  won’t come again for another century, in 2107. Of course, the times and dates will align sequentially once every year until 9:10 and 11 seconds on Dec. 13, 2014, or 09:10:11 12/13/14. After that, time will revert to its usual untidy mix of hours, minutes and seconds passing through the days of our lives.

For most of us, these sequences are little more than, well, coincidental sequences of numbers. Still, the phenomenon is giving some Internet chatrooms fodder for idle conversation. At digg.com, the impending moment sparked a lively exchange, including one nostalgic post by “uglyredhonda” that said, “Still nowhere near as cool as 12:34:56 on 7/8/90.” Oh yeah. That was way cooler.

Serious party mathematicians, though, won’t go to sleep. There’ll be a shots of tequila and a few high fives and then they’ll move on. That is, until we count from 1 to 6 at 01:02:03 on April, 5, 2106. Now that will be worth staying up for.

In 1962, my then wife and I drove a newly acquired but well used Simca Plein Ciel from Miami, Florida, to Sacramento, California. We had allotted just four days for the trip having already used up most of my military travel time visiting my parents. It was yet another in a string of poor choices I take full credit for during that time of my life, but that’s another story for another day.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with French auto maker Simca, the Plein Ciel (translated “Full Sky”) was a somewhat under-powered two-seater coupe produced from 1958-62 when Simca was apparently attempting to strengthen their brand by capitalizing on the growing popularity of sports cars. Powered by a 2.4 liter, 84 h.p. engine with a four-speed transmission, it reached a top speed of 88 mph. Hardly a speedster, it was nonetheless a sports car and I was still reeling from my failed Volvo P1800 partnership ftasco.

To make a long story a little shorter, by the time we reached Tallahassee, the little Simca had used more oil than gasoline and I realized we were in serious trouble. I pulled into a busy downtown intersection around noon and asked the traffic cop where I might find an auto repair shop. Without hesitation, he directed me to one nearby that specialized in European sports cars.

I don’t remember the name of the shop but I do remember the owner’s name - It was Jim Giles and he agreed to look under the hood. In short order, they had removed the first piston, or what was left of it, and I braced myself for the worst. In the end, four pistons, along with complete rings and valves, needed replacement. To make matters worse, he didn’t have the parts!

Jim huddled with his four employees, made a telephone call, then told us that his father, the Deputy Commander of Maintenance at Turner AFB in Albany, Georgia, would pick up the necessary parts and drive them down to Tallahassee that evening. On top of that, his four employees would stay after hours to install them!

While we waited for the parts to arrive, my wife and I eventually fell asleep in the car and were awakened at midnight by Jim. His father had delivered the parts, he and his employees had repaired the car while we slept and it was ready to drive! Hesitantly, I asked how much I owed, hoping against hope that I had enough money to cover what I was certain would be an astronomical bill. To my complete amazement, he said that he wouldn’t charge for his labor, that his employees would accept nothing more than $5.00 for some beer, and that he would charge only his cost for the parts! I couldn’t believe my ears! I thanked him profusely and promised to call him from Sacramento to let him know how the little car had held up.

I learned a lesson that day, that there are kind, caring people, angels really, that occasionally enter our lives when we need them most and help us on our way. I also learned, first hand, what it meant to “pay it forward”, something I’ve never forgotten.

In his earlier work, Richard Caldicott used Tupperware containers as the subject for his photographs, elevating these common household objects to objects of beauty. Piling vibrantly colored plastic cups and bowls, he created abstract formations that were like eye-popping op-art paintings

His concern was the metamorphosis of the everyday, which for him has something almost alchemical about it. This went one step further in photography, by chemically transforming his constructions into two-dimensional pictures at the touch of a button. The work shows that he was aiming for a kind of transmutation of the functionality of everyday objects.

Caldicott refers to his latest works as “Constructions,” which not only suggests that he is manually making the things he photographs, but also creates a connection to constructivism and architecture. In this series, he leaves the realm of using specific objects, and deals directly with abstraction. He makes collages and assemblages, and then photographs them multiple times. The transparencies are then overlapped in different formations to get the final image.

His work is currently on view at the Galerie f5,6 in Munich until May 26th.

Via Cool Hunting.

As you’ll notice just above the “Navigation” section on this site, I’ve added a “Search” function aimed at allowing you, as the title implies, to search this site for journal entries by any key word you deem relevant. For example, if you want to find a post you read some time ago but can’t recall the date or title, just enter a word or words you think are contained in the article, then key “enter” (or the little arrow to the right of your entry) and you’ll be presented with a list of entries containing that word or words.

For example, let’s say you remember an article about a sports car. Enter “sports car” or “sports” or “car Nash”, hit “enter” and shazzam, you have a list, with short excerpts, of every article I’ve posted referencing your word or words.

Simple? Give it a try. Experiment and then let me know how it’s working for you.

Oh, and yes, I realize the search box is larger than my column width and the arrow carries over to the next line. I’m working on fixing that. Meanwhile, it works fine so don’t be afraid to use it. Got the box fixed. Have fun!

And by the way, the “Archives” function still allows you to search the site by category or month…

Fiji boasts some of the finest scuba diving in the world and one of its premiere dive destinations is Beqa (pronounced Mbengga or Benga) Lagoon where you’ll find some of the most beautiful soft corals anywhere on the planet. You’ll also find some of the world’s friendliest people in Fiji. No wonder it’s one of my favorite diving destinations. So I thought you might enjoy an “above water” photo taken on Beqa Island in 1993…

Barbara sent this. She makes a good case!

I saw this series of six images of tattooed pigs from this site on cranium. I’m not sure whether it’s a true art form in China or a tattoo artist practicing his craft on farm animals. I’d like to believe it’s a Chinese custom, in which case it’s one of the most unusual I’ve seen. If not, call PETA. See what you think.

The Duke wants to know…

A Few Words About the World’s Fastest Growing Religion…

Via Speed of Thought

I received this from Michael and thought it timely and worth sharing… 

Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table…everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean.  They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food. 

After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore. I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be…  quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal. 

Maybe it’s time for our government to take down the bird feeder.

I haven’t yet driven downtown this morning to check out the gathering demonstrators, many illegal aliens, demanding amnesty and socialism. Most expect a smaller turnout than the ones launched in major cities last year. If I get any good pictures, I’ll post them. Meanwhile, here are six images from last year’s, uh, “event.”

This may come as a surprise to Rosie O’Donnell…

Oakland, Calif. —- A stretch of highway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed Sunday after a gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames, a loss officials said could leave freeways leading to one of the nation’s busiest spans in near paralysis at rush hour. Officials said traffic will be disrupted for weeks, if not months. Flames shot 200 feet in the air and the heat was intense enough to melt part of the freeway and cause the collapse, but the truck’s driver walked away with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported in the 3:45 a.m. crash. …

What? Fire actually melted steel for the second time in history? Rosie must be feverously typing on her website about the Bush administration being responsible, an obvious conspiracy to discredit her.

Authorities said the damage could take months to repair and would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge. Nearly 75,000 vehicles use the portion of the road every day. But because the accident occurred where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause commuting problems for hundreds of thousands. State transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the bridge into San Francisco each day.

I can’t wait to hear Rosie’s explanation. A bomb? Uh huh. That’s it.