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8月31日 The plot thickens...The Plot Thickens...
Republican National Convention 2008
I was going to try to do an update on the events around the police raids around the RNC earlier this morning but there was just too much stuff! It looks like the 'alternative media' was getting a lot of video out on 'You Tube'. Now we have some of the 'mainstream media' available to possibly fill in some of the missing details about what was happening.
Good old Channel 4
Do you remember that meeting they were going to have at Powderhorn Park? Well, the guys at 'Uptake' got this out about it.
I have to hand it to 'The Uptake', they cover it all. Even the chickens.
Police acting like Nazi's? I was really waiting for that line to come up.
It just isn't a party without lawyers.
Everybody gets interviewed!
Found this from Channel 9
I could keep posting stuff all night. I am finding videos popping up on all sides of this. The first protest march was today and it was pretty much uneventful. The funny thing was I heard on Saturday that 2000 marchers were expected and then today I heard on the news that only 300 marchers showed up. Tomorrow is supposed to be the big march - some estimates think as many as 50,000 people. I wonder if it will disappoint them that Bush won't be there?
8月30日 The Fun just keeps on coming...The Fun just keeps on coming...
Republican National Convention 2008
So here I am, sitting at my favorite Caribou Coffee in Inver Grove Heights, doing my usual blog update. The news updates on 'You Tube' just keep coming. It looks to me like the 'alternative media' is following this all way ahead of the larger news outlets. Now do they have any sort of agenda in their coverage? I'm not going to say whether this is evident one way or the other. I'll let you decide. I will say right here and upfront that I don't want to see violence or disruption during the RNC. It just makes me wonder what would happen if the police didn't take any action and somebody got killed during the protests? What is an acceptable level of action for law enforcement in dealing with this sort of situation? It will be interesting to hear their side of the story.
I really don't envy the police during this whole thing. You have to wonder what is an acceptable level of response to what they see as a threat to public safety? I am a big advocate for the freedom of public assembly and freedom of speech but what about the prevention of violence? I am often amazed how various militant groups disregard the right to free speech when the speech involved isn't acceptable to them.
The Fun is just beginning...The Fun is just beginning...
Republican National Convention 2008
I got up this morning to hear that the fun had already started for the 2008 RNC. There was a report about the police having a relatively peaceful dispersal of demonstrators camped out on Harriet Island and the 'Critical Mass' group doing one of their bicycle rides. The real news was the police raids on the 'RNC Welcoming Committee'. I'll just let these videos tell the story:
What kind of party would it be without lawyers?
It sounds like the fun is just beginning. It made me so happy to see that Dave Thune managed to make it to the festivities. I really have to thank the people at the 'Uptake' for their video. It will be interesting to see what more shows up from the law enforcement side of this. 8月29日 Republican National ConventionRepublican National Convention
Laurie and I work in downtown Minneapolis; our office building is right across and intersection from the Hennepin County Government Center. Every morning we drive to work and pass through Saint Paul. We don't pass that far from the Xcel Center. Over the last week we have been seeing all the signs of the Republican National Convention. More billboards with political ads. More chainlink fences with barbwire. More concrete blast barriers. Tonight we saw these nifty trailers with floodlights and security cameras. More security everywhere.
Next week the big party begins. They say 50,000 demonstrators are going to descend on the Twin Cities. Most of these people sound like decent people. Some of these people are the literal lunatic fringe. I've been watching their websites. Some of pretty openly advocating disrupting things as much as they could. I read in one of our local newspapers that the local law enforcement agencies have been putting a lot of money into crowd control equipment. Lots of tear gas I bet. It sounds like a lot of fun to be had for everybody.
I'm going to try to do some daily updates as the convention goes on. It might not amount to anything. The didn't have all that much trouble at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The problem is most of our protesters actually like the DNC; they do not like the Republicans. I fully support the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. I just think this isn't what some people want. Next week could be considerably different than what went down in Denver...
This was put out by the RNC Welcoming Committee.
Next week could be interesting...
8月27日 Confessions of a pair of Radio Talkshow Junkies...Confessions of a pair of Talk Radio Junkies...
Bright and early yesterday morning Laurie and I head for the Minnesota State Fair again. We didn't know until late Monday if we would get this Tuesday off from work. My boss decided to let me go for the day. This would just mean that Laurie and I could get a mega-dose of Talk Radio for our mutual addiction. Yes Ken, you were an enabler for our habit.
Laurie and I didn't stop for anything after we got onto the fairgrounds! We headed directly for the AM 1500 KSTP building. We camped out beside the KSTP building from 8:30am to 5:30pm. We took in the Bob Davis Show, the Mischke Broadcast and the Garage Logic. We both came away from this with sunburn but we both felt our addiction satified for the moment.
Watching a radio show live can be a bit odd. Radio is obviously not intended as a visual experience. I think that nobody told Tommy Mischke about this. During his show he found it perfectly fit to rush away from the building with a wireless mike to confront various fairgoers. He also felt the need to confront a wandering robot...
Tommy Mischke versus the Robot 8月23日 Supertalk Saturday 2008Supertalk Saturday 2008
Anybody who knows Laurie or me knows that we are radio talkshow junkies. We listen to far more radio than we watch television. When we travel we have a talk show on the radio. Before we head to bed we have a talk show on. While we are at work we have a radio on at our desks. We live and breath some of these programs.
Probably one of our favorite programs is 'Garage Logic' on AM 1500. Some of you might know of it as the 'Joe Soucheray Show'. We try not to miss it unless we have to. I find the wisdom of Joe far better than a lot of other popular media figures.
Joe - the guy in the white GL hat I am also an avid fan of the 'Bob Davis Show'. Bob has moved all over the time slots of AM 1500 for several years now but has settled into the late morning slot quite well. He has one of the best grasps of current politics that I know of. He might seem a little goofy to some people but his political analysis is often amazing. I don't think of him as either liberal or conservative; I think of him as brutally realistic. He has the wonderful quality of making an intellectually honest person think. If you are a person who marches in locked step with the party line you might find listening to him a little uncomfortable. So today is the one time each year that AM 1500 has most of its talk show stars on stage in front of all humanity at the Minnesota State Fair. It starts with a special edition of 'Saturday Sports Talk'. This is a show where sports are sort of incidental to the broadcast. Today's show included a loud visit by the infamous Winter Carnival Vulcans - actually the Vulcans of 2004 - and the annual babywalk. The babywalk is a sort of parade in which parents present their children to Joe and Pat - that is Patrick Reusse the sports writer - to judge whether the children's names are acceptable. All comers get a certificate stamped as either 'acceptable' or 'not acceptable'. Violaters also get a sounding of the foghorn. Severe violaters get the sounding of the "Duluth Foghorn".
Joe and Pat holding court during the Babywalk Then at noon all of the other talk show hosts are paraded out on the stage. I don't think there is any other public event each year when the public can subject the hosts to this sort of scrutiny. Usually it turns into a question and answer event of some sort in which some of the facts of the hosts lives are laid bare. For a collection of several hundred talkshow fanatics this is great entertainment. It is also a chance to meet the hosts face-to-face and shake a few hands. For a bunch of guys who sometimes blast out their opinions on what one of them termed a "50,000 watt flamethrower" they are incredibly friendly and gracious in public. After all of this Laurie and I took a walk through the rest of the fair. They say this fair has record attendance with 104,000 people on the first day. We enjoyed some deep-friend SPAM and wandered through the throngs...
Throngs!
8月19日 LHC Accelerator at CERNThe LHC Accelerator at CERN
Now that the potential for a strike is largely behind us. It could still happen if the membership of CWA refused to ratify the new contract. It looks like I can get back to more interesting things. Right now I am particularly fascinated by the upcoming start of testing at the LHC Accelerator. It hasn't gotten a lot of news in the United States but the implications of these tests could not just change physics but also the understanding of the paranormal.
The late Michael Talbot put forward the theory in his book 'The Holographic Universe' that our understanding of reality was constrained by our understanding of physics. Science really hasn't had the means to test some of Tabot's ideas. Now there might be a chance to answer some of these questions. In gaining an understanding of these areas of physics we will also get new insights into the paranormal.
This series of experiments might also answer questions about the possibility of other dimensions, of energy that we couldn't previously detect and even the very nature of matter. It has the potential of redefining what we think of as the world we experience.
It is my opinion the only reason we consider the paranormal a mystery is we haven't had the science to understand it. This idea runs contrary to a lot of people in the 'New Age' community. The fact is I have more confidence in science than I have in a lot of spiritualism. The paradox of all this is that someday I fully expect science to confirm some spiritualist beliefs. We might find out that 'psychics' do have a sensitivity to certain forces that we have been unable to detect and quantify. At the same time we might also find that a lot of what has passed as paranormal research has more to do with the self-promotion and taking advantage of the vulnerable.
8月18日 No StrikeNo Strike
We got the news this morning that Qwest and CWA came to a tenative agreement this morning at about 3:45am. As a show of good faith CWA is telling us to go to work today. It looks to me like we will have no strike and the convention work will go ahead.
Now the next big adventure for Laurie and me will be when the RNC convention comes to the Twin Cities... 8月16日 Strike?Strike?
In about eleven more hours Laurie and I will know one way or the other whether we are on the picket lines Monday. Right now things sound like that might be the case. The last time we heard the negotiations had more or less fallen apart. Of course the last time we were getting ready for a strike the two of us were literally standing outside our building waiting to get our picket signs when word came to us that a contract had been negotiated at the last minute.
You know what, I'm not going to say to much here. I'll leave that up to the CWA to do at this point. I'll be posting more of the usual 'Booming Prairie Chicken' stuff this weekend. If we do end up on the picket lines I will probably have time to do a daily post as we grind through the strike.
In the meantime I found a little video for all of you fellow Qwest people who survived the 'Nachio Days'...
8月9日 Science ponders the improbableScience ponders the improbable
Today Laurie and I have one week until our contract deadline. Negotiations have not been going that well from what little we hear. The big stumbling block seems to be over how health care will be handled for Union members and pensioners. Of course the last time we came to a contract deadline both Laurie and I were standing outside our downtown offices just waiting to do our picket duty. The managers inside the building actually came out to ask us if we had heard anything on the talks! The fact was the Union and management had come to a last minute settlement.
I'm not going to think about that right now. We have done as much as we can to be ready. Today I am going to tell about what seems to me like a potential breakthrough in paranormal research. We might eventually have to rethink how we view the universe.
Some months ago I talked about a book written by the late physicist Michael Talbot. He put forward new ideas, revolutionary ideas, about human perception and the physical reality around us. The book was:
The Holographic Universe
Michael Talbot
1991, Harper Collins
ISBN-10: 0-06-092258-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-092258-0
Talbot offered probably the most plausible theory I've ever seen to offer a scientific explanation for paranormal phenomena. He was offering a explanation that would make the impossible very possible. He was also able to offer his theory in terms that any person can understand.
The only problem was that when his book was published in 1991 it was essentially a theory. There was little empirical evidence available to support his ideas. As wonderful and brilliant as his ideas were they lacked the hard evidence to establish them as fact.
Now we might be getting closer to that evidence. Do some research on the search for 'Dark Matter' and 'Dark Energy'. You will find most of it is concerned with cosmology and the unknown dynamics of our universe. You will also find debate over the reality of Dark Matter. It seems to me like one of the great scientific questions of our time. If Dark Matter does exist then we have discovered a new physical parameter to our understanding of what we call reality. Imagine a particle that is there, all around us, maybe even within us, that carries with it energy that we currently neither measure or understand. I am not a physicist but as I understand it this matter extends throughout the universe and could add new dimensions - possibly literally - to physics.
The idea that there undiscovered dimensions of science could be applicable to paranormal research. Just because we don't understand something does not mean it isn't real. Some of our current attempts at exploring and explaining the paranormal betray our ignorance of the possible explanations that might soon be available. Now let me warn you, do not drop into a physics forum and casually ask if Dark Matter represents an explanation for ghosts, UFO's or Big Foot. I have seen people do this and be jeered off the forum as lunatics or imbeciles. Science is yet to establish the definitive evidence of Dark Matter; it might be awhile before they are even willing to consider the potentially connections to such phenomena.
Some of the theories around Dark Matter also touch on possible connections outside of our three known dimensions. I find this also interesting in that one of the current experiments being done to establish the reality of Dark Matter also holds that it might possibly pass from our dimension to another. Kind of wild to think about.
So the question then comes of how science is going to establish the reality of Dark Matter? Well, I'll let the scientists tell you for themselves.
Yup, they're talking about other dimensions...
You might want to make a note about the Higgs-Bosun particle.
So what does this hunt for the Higgs have to do with Dark Matter? A lot actually, the LHC also stands a chance of producing the evidence of Dark Matter and the Higgs essentially interacting together.
I'm always careful about using Wikipedia but they did a pretty good job on explaining Dark Matter.
Okay, enough for now. Let me just say that this is a field of physics that will open up the possible explanations of various phenomena. It stands to reason that as science expands its understanding of what composes our reality we might also discover that some of what has been considers impossible is really very possible.
8月5日 You just never know what will show up...You just never know what will show up...
Anybody who knows me will know what a fascination I have with the mysteries associated with the Third Reich. There is an amazing amount of published material on Germany before and during the Second World War but in some ways scholars have just glimpsed the mountain of information that it out there. The United States brought back railroad cars of papers they captured from the Germans. The Russians are only now revealing some of the information they have. The British have some documents that are sealed under their secrecy laws until the year 2045!
Then every so often something really unexpected shows up! I have joked with some people that I am waiting for the day somebody discovers some lost bunker filled with new research materials. The Third Reich was nothing less than prolific in their construction of bunkers and reinforced shelters; they literally moved whole factories underground! I think we have probably found most of these. I just always had a feeling there were probably a few that have managed to remain hidden.
Well, we just found some...
You really have to check this news story out. Now these bunkers look to be of the same type the Germans built late in the war as beach defence positions on what was known as 'The Atlantic Wall'. I'm not sure there will be any finds of classified documents or other secrets of the Reich. These were probably the barracks and fighting positions for a Wehrmacht garrison. Still the fact that these were discovered makes you wonder what other facilities remain hidden somewhere.
This is a video of what was a pretty typical German beach defence bunker. This is not one of the bunkers they just found but probably pretty similar. The engineers that designed these used a lot of same ideas whether it was built in France, Norway or Denmark.
This is another nice video I've found of one of these old bunkers. Most countries decided to remove the bunkers after the war. There are some of these bunkers that are still in military use. Norway has quite a few that they have rearmed and maintain as coastal defence positions. The Soviets reused a lot of the large underground shelters they found in Germany while they occupied the country.
There is a whole field of 'conspiracy theory' types that have been speculating for decades on what was actually done in some of these underground bunkers. Sometime maybe I'll have to post some of that. I'll be the first to admit that some of the German governments actions regarding some of these old bunkers do have a bit of mystery to them.
Well, I'll leave that for another time...
8月3日 Chad Lewis on Coast to Coast AMChad Lewis on Coast to Coast AM
Some of you might want to check this out! This Monday Chad Lewis is going to be on 'Coast to Coast AM' with George Noory. This is the same Chad Lewis of the combination of Chad Lewis and Terry Fisk; the authors of that large and growing series of paranormal travel guides.
Coast to Coast Website
One of the great things about 'Coast to Coast' is that if you can not stay up for the show you can download or stream it later. Laurie and I have had the chance to meet and talk with both Terry and Chad and were impressed with their sincere efforts to track down phenomena. Their books are worth the investment and fairly informative. They can't really go into a lot of depth on any single location but they do offer as comprehensive a guide as you can possibly find.
Check out their website for more information on their books. If they drop into your area to speak they are worth listening too. 8月2日 Two weeks...Two Weeks...
Two weeks until our contract runs out. Laurie and I are members of Communications Workers of America Local 7200 and on August 16th at midnight our current contract will expire. Both of us could potentially be on the picket lines immediately after that. I think we are about as ready as you can be for this but you can never be too ready. Sometimes I think we are better prepared than a lot of other Union members. We have been saving money and getting loose ends tied up for eighteen months now. The idea of going out on strike still makes me a bit nervous.
I don't always agree with my Union. I don't generally like their political endorsements. I don't agree with a lot of their priorities. In a lot of ways I think they have gone a little too far to the 'Left' in my opinion. This doesn't mean I am particularly fond of certain 'Right' wing groups either; the Republican Party is largely a bad joke and a sham. Both sides of the political spectrum have largely lost sight of what is the best thing for the United States of America. Our current energy debate is a good example of this. Like it or not we currently depend on oil. I don't see any of these alternative energy plans coming to our rescue anytime soon. We depend on quite a bit of our oil coming from politically unstable countries. Even PEMEX, our Mexican oil supplier is looking a bit hinky these days. Why don't we just go and get our own oil reserves until we can make some of these alternative energy plans viable? No, that would be logical, we will just fight in Congress over the partisan politics of it all. Nancy Pelosi will do all she can to prevent any realistic resolution of this problem. My Union blindly endorses the party she represents. So I don't always agree with my Union.
In two weeks we might be out on strike and it looks like the issue will be health care. Managements wants us to all pay a fairly large chunk of our health care costs. The managers have been doing this for awhile now. The real problem for Union people will be around members who have families. It is one thing to cover yourself but quite another to cover your spouse and kids. Laurie and I are relatively lucky in that we each work for the company and don't support any kids. The potential costs of picking up even a portion of our healtcare could be prohibitive for Union members with families.
Still I try to see the Company side of the issue. It probably is a substantial outlay to pay our healthcare. You can read in just about any newspaper how this is a growing issue for every company. My problem with this is that I see our company with so many unbelievably highly paid executives and I wonder how many of the rank and file could have their healthcare covered by eliminating some of these 'suits'?
Then there is a part of me that thinks this all could be potentially a useless and pointless fight! If you have been reading the newspapers or watching the news you can see one of the major issues of the current presidential election is healthcare. Just about everybody has an idea about creating a national healthcare system. Even our former CEO publicly stated that corporate America needed some sort of national healthcare system. I have yet to see one of these national healthcare plans that seems viable to me. The fact of the matter is that in two weeks my Union might be going out on strike over an issue that might be decided on a national level in another four months!
Still Laurie and I are loyal to our Union. We are relatively well paid and our benefits are not bad. Yes, I can see room for improvement. This is why we are in contract talks. There is a lot more on the bargaining table than just healthcare. Are we ready to strike? We are probably as ready as we will ever be... |
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