Archive for June, 2010


There’s one thing I’ve wanted to say to you for years, Dad: You were absolutely right about Gunsmoke being a terrific TV program!

I know it seems like something small, but I ragged on you for years for liking a western when that kind of series was out of vogue.  Years later, when my brother and I would drive up to buy food for Mom once a month, we’d watch Gunsmoke each Saturday night after the local news went off (the ABC channel showed it), and I came to love its intricate storylines and its fascinating characters. You were right all along–Gunsmore was a great television show!

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Thanks to Scott Klein for getting things back on track so this blog could get up and running … and for sorting out this blog’s new address!

For tomorrow, I’m planning on doing a special Father’s Day entry that will put this blog back in high gear. Honestly, I didn’t know how much I missed writing something every day until we began to move our club’s server and I couldn’t do it for a while. If you wonder what I was up to during this down time, just go to scifipulse.net!

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If you haven’t heard about the new iPad or iPhone 4G, you will be soon! They’ve been all over the media, and I thought I’d share some of my favorite moments with you today. Here goes!

First up, Steve Jobs briefs the Rebel Troops on the iPad:

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A couple preparing for marriage recently came across an interesting discovery–that they had appeared in the same picture taken in Disneyworld years ago! Here’s the story from wesh.com:

>>BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. —

Alex and Donna Voutsinas are like many couples; they met at work, fell in love and got engaged.

Days before their wedding, the couple was looking at old family photos when Donna came across a picture of herself as a child on vacation at Disney and showed it to her fiancé.

But Alex was more interested in the man walking in the background behind Donna’s smiling family and the character Mr. Smee from Disney’s “Peter Pan.”

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And you thought your Star Trek collection was complete! Well, think again!

Trek fans can buy their favorite characters in HeroClix format to enjoy and play with before long. Here’ s the official announcement:

>>WIZKIDS/NECA ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH CBS CONSUMER PRODUCTS TO DEVELOP STAR TREK® GAMES

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Sleep–we all need it, but we don’t always get it. Lately, I’ve had several stressful things to deal with, so I’ve trouble getting enough rest, so I found this article helpful. It’s from the The Independent in the UK:

>>Don’t sleep longer – sleep smarter

Worried that you don’t get the fabled eight hours? That’s your first mistake, says Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan, who thinks it’s quality, rather than quantity, that counts. She shares her tips for a better night’s rest with Rob Sharp.

“Sleeping is no mean art,” said Friedrich Nietzsche. “For its sake one must stay awake all day.” Indeed, maximising slumber duration can be a complex process. Today’s anxiety-ridden, deadline-heavy world can steal away our eight hours of heavenly rest and replace it with a night frustratedly gnawing our pillows.

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It’s not bad enough that Apple recently put out the iPad for those of us into gadgets and gadgetry to buy … now they will soon have the iPhone 4G available! How much can a techno-guy afford, anyway?

Here’s the debut as reported on by The Wall Street Journal:

>>Steve Jobs unveiled a new iPhone Monday in a presentation that was long on new features but short on surprise, as the Apple Inc. chief faces increasing competition in smartphones, particularly from devices based on Google Inc.’s Android software.

While Mr. Jobs described the iPhone 4 as “the biggest leap since the original iPhone,” he offered few bombshells after Gawker Media LLC’s technology blog Gizmodo shared details about the device in April after getting hold of a prototype.

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In an accompanying piece about the “East Coast Rapist” I posted entries about this weekend, the Washington Post published some interesting answers about DNA and the case in response to readers’ questions:

>>DNA questions, answers about the ‘East Coast Rapist’

Readers of the story and interactive about the so-called ‘East Coast Rapist’ submitted a number of questions about the DNA methods used in the investigation.

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In yesterday’s entry, I printed the first half of an article from the Washington Post regarding a serial rapist in the Washington, DC, area. Here’s the conclusion:

>>Three months later, the rapist attacked two Prince George’s teenagers at gunpoint as they walked home from the Marlow Heights shopping center near the Beltway. He forced the two into the woods in what would be the first time he raped two people in a single incident. The wooded ravine is similar to the scene of the recent Prince William attack.

Days after Christmas 2001, a 29-year-old mother of four from Fairfax was running late for her 7 p.m. work shift. She pulled on a turtleneck, a T-shirt, a sweat shirt and a coat and waited at a bus stop in the Alexandria section of the county.

She saw a man smoking a cigarette and thought he was being polite by standing back at the edge of the woods. He came closer and asked whether she knew when the next bus would arrive.

But the man didn’t want an answer. “I have a weapon — follow me,” he said. She caught a glimpse of a knife handle in his coat pocket.

As he led her down the street, the bus went by, too late to help. He demanded money. When she insisted that she had none, he didn’t believe her.

“You work all the time,” he said. He was right. She had two jobs, one at Ames and the other in a fast-food restaurant. She thought he could not have known that unless he had been watching her.

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I know that it has been a while since this story appeared in the Washington Post, but I work with some ladies who remain concerned about this rapist. It is interesting that in this age of DNA evidence and CSi-like precision, someone can still get away with rape. I want to get the entire article in, so I’m running it in two parts. The concluding part will run tomorrow.

>>After 13 years, police still hunting for the East Coast Rapist

By Josh White and Maria Glod

He lurks at gas stations and pay phones and bus stops, blending in so well that people don’t notice him at first. He has a smooth, deep voice. He is black, he smokes and he is right-handed. He is in his early to mid-30s, is fit, stands about 6 feet tall, likes wearing camouflage clothes and black hats, and once had a badly chipped tooth.

The man studies women carefully. He watches them leave for work and walk home from the mall, and he notices whether they lock their windows and doors. He knows when they are most vulnerable and when they are home alone with their children. He stalks them in neighborhoods he knows well.

Then he rapes them and vanishes.

He is the East Coast Rapist. And police know so much about this man. They even have his DNA. But when it comes right down to it, he is a frustrating mystery. No one has been able to find him.

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