5,000-Mph?

Yahoo! News - NASA's 5,000-Mph Jet Makes First Flight

P. Tosh ~ Scottish 2nd Division Top Goalscorer

I watch Sky Sports News every night and every night on the right side of the screen it scrolls the top goalscorers from all the football divisions in England, Wales and Scotland. As these names and goal tallies scrolled by I kept noticing "P. Tosh". Everytime I saw his name he was the top goalscorer in Scottish Division 2. My fascination started because everytime I saw "P. Tosh" it made me think of the reggae great Peter Tosh aka The Stepping Razor.

I did some research and sadly his name is Paul Tosh. It would've been cooler had it been Peter. In any case P.Tosh has 18 goals for his club Forfar Athletic and the next closest has 15. I'll keep you posted.





Apparently not related...

Hellhouse of Maryland

Have a look at our trip to Hellhouse in Ilchester, Maryland. It's called Hell House for a reason...it's supposedly haunted. It's a haven for satanists and they are usually armed. We went there one night and after hearing satanic chanting the caretaker set his hellhounds on us. These dogs wanted to rip us to shreds. We went back later that evening with baseball bats...then they shot at us. You've never seen kids run down stone steps as fast as we did.


P.S. Avoid the 'stubbornlights' Hellhouse website. They are assholes. They have stolen copyrighted images from the Ilchester yearbooks and illegally pasted them to their website. Nice to see a 'scholarly' webpage that steals the property of others. It's called plagarism.

This photo is not copyrighted dickheads. Feel free to do whatever you like with it.

Special thanks to the people at Ilchester History

Johnny Cash Biopic To Star Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon

MTV.com - Johnny Cash Biopic

It didn't take Hollywood long to start production on a Johnny Cash biopic, "Walk The Line". I'm a big fan of Cash and the Carter family and although I was surprised to see Joaquin Phoenix cast as Johnny somehow I think he'll pull it off. He's lucky to get Reese Witherspoon as his wife June Carter Cash.

Although I hated him in Gladiator, I suppose he did a good job...I mean anytime you hate the bad guy he must be doing something right. He was also good in U-Turn. Apparently he's a good guy. My buddy Dave's brother-in-law is a firefighter and Joaquin hung out with his ladder and bought them tons of beers. A good way to get to any man's heart.


Johnny Cash shouldn't be that hard to play. At his core he was a pious and faithful man who loved his wife and loved the downtrodden. He and his wife spent years working for better conditions in prisons and played concerts for the inmates. He used to treat the prison guards like shit and the inmates loved it. He grew up dirt poor in rural Arkansas and experience the hardships of sharecropping and watching his brother die. Through all the pain and suffering he kept his faith in the Lord and like Charley Patton before him he recorded many songs of praise. He wasn't perfect...he struggled with drug-addiction all his life (once crossing U.S. border from Mexico with a guitar case full to the brim with drugs and pills). He's an American legend and will never be forgotten.

Shooting of Cameraman Tragic But Justified

Yahoo! News - Report: Shooting of Cameraman Tragic But Justified

I'm surprised this hasn't happened more often. At first I was thinking how can you mistake a camera for an RPG but if you're inside a tank, you don't have the best visibility, and soldiers get jumpy when something is aiming at them. Honestly, at 100 yards away I'd have probably opened fire on this guy. Sorry.

The Wild Geese in Africa!

Our surrogate fathers! Dedicated to my brother Keith. One day I'll own a pub and name it "The Wild Geese"

American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

We went to the Natural History Museum today and spent the entire day trying to get our minds off things. I don't think we ever got off the First Floor. There is so much to see and so much to learn.

The main reason I wanted to go was to see the Ross Hall of Meteorites. Absolutely amazing. The fact that you can actually touch some of the large meteorites was awe inspiring. In the center of the exhibit stands a 34 ton chunk of iron meteorite. Very cool. There were plenty of meteorite samples, cross sections of stone and iron meteorites, several pieces of moon rock, and photographs of impact craters.

The Human Biology and Evolution hall was also intriguing. Lots of neanderthal, cro magnon, and early hominid skulls and tools.

There was also an excellent film in the theatre on the double helix and DNA reproduction. Very interesting because I'm reading two books on the subject (Decoding Your Genes & The Seven Daughters of Eve). There were even interviews with Crick and Watson.

The Northwest Coast Indians exhibit was okay but lacked any kind of written background or history of each tribe. I'd never heard of Nootka Indians...it would've been nice to at least have a few words about them while looking at their masks, weapons etc.

On the way out we stopped by the North American Mammals exhibit. For me the highpoint was seeing a stuffed family of bison. There were some great brown bears and grizzlies, a few pronghorns and a badass wolverine. I'd never seen a wolverine before. I never really read the comic and everything I knew about them consisted of them being the University of Michigan's mascot and the only description I'd ever heard of them was from the Russian invaders in Red Dawn.

We watched Red Dawn as kids about 100 times and it was a great movie for us kids growing up during the Cold War always wondering in the back of our minds if we were gonna be fighting and killing Russian soldiers one day.

This movie deeply affected my brother and I. We used to do nighttime outdoor military-style survival training. We'd put on all our camouflage from Sunny's Surplus and carry our air rifles as we waded through creeks and used hand signals to communicate possible enemy sightings. I guess me and my brother were army mad. We were really into movies that depicted the 22nd Regiment SAS or the Royal Marine Commandos (The Wild Geese & The Final Option), we also liked Platoon. We watched these damn movies every day for years. We were militaristic TV babies.

For a better perspective on which movies turned us into emotionless military killing machines click here.

Batman, The Homeless, Cherokees & Chippewas.

Spent a while chatting to my homeless buddy Batman today. He's a Vietnam vet living on the street and we usually see him and the others (The Cuban, Candice, 7:30) around the NYU Math building. Yep, there's actually a homeless guy called "7:30". Batman (he's half African-American/half Cherokee) told me he was born with a yellow layer over his eyes on the Cherokee reservation. The elders told his mother he would have excellent night vision. He says it helped him in 'Nam. We chat a few times a week and usually when I see him he's helping out the other homeless people or reading books on Zen. An interesting man that's for sure.

We went for a long walk through SoHo today and as we cruised past the boutiques (Prada, DKNY) we met a man (Mike or Matt) Fisher. He was selling jewelry (earrings and bracelets) made from old coins. He had bracelets made entirely of silver dollars and other made from Indian Head and Liberty nickels etc. Apparently he's been arrested four times for making jewelry out of U.S. currency...he gets off everytime because he tells them he's Native American (Chippewa) so Federal law doesn't apply to him. God knows if this is an actual defense, but it was an interesting story.

He told us that there's a Chippewa gene that causes double jointed wrists. He had two bulges in each wrist which was odd. Then he showed us his missing finger (great), he said he lost that in 'Nam. Seems like everyone around here was in the 'Nam. I intend to research the Chippewa wrist gene...I have to think it's bullshit. I'll post the answer soon.

Interesting coincidence to meet two Native American Vietnam vets.

Sami Hyppia Beats Wolves!

Last Minute Winner!>

We were looking at another dismal 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers when in the last minute Finnish centre-half Sami Hyppia headed Liverpool into the lead. Anfield erupted. Three crucial points gained...maybe we'll finish 4th after all..

Lost in Translation (2003)

Lost in Translation (2003)

Pretty good, my wife kept saying how much she liked the cinematography. I told her I like the cinema but i don't like the tography. She just sorted of looked at me like WTF.

We enjoyed it and I guess Sofia Coppola did a good job but I felt like we were left hanging. Bill Murray bangs the older lounge singer but he doesn't have a go at Scarlett Johansson? I reckon I'd have hung out with her but at some point I'd have tapped it.

Scarlett Johansson looks good, nice body, nice lips and I remember thinking she'd get big after Ghost World. She has promise but I fear Hollywood is going to her head.

Ghost World (2003)

Love Liza (2002)

Love Liza (2002)

Tragic and yet comedic. Philip Seymour Hoffman just gets better and better with each film he does. Despite the dark subject matter (his wife's suicide) there are some hilarious moments. It's funny, it's sad but isn't that what life really is?

Hoffman's character designs websites and he was pretty good until his wife killed herself and left him a note. He never reads the note despite his mother-in-law's constant prodding.

To escape his pain he finds comfort in huffing gasoline. (Is this movie about my brother's high school buddies?) He starts descending into a stupor of addiction, madness and rage. He starts flying model airplanes as an escape but the gasoline keeps calling him and eventually he loses his job. It really depicts how pathetic addiction can be. In a way it reminded me of Nick Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Both incredible portrayals of addicts.

Hoffman is one hell of an actor and I enjoyed the tragedy intertwined with the comedy. This is not for everyone but I sure as hell liked it.



"It's all downhill from here..."

Carly Corinthos - The Best Reason to Watch Daytime TV

Carly Corinthos aka Tamara Braun used to be Sonny's wife on General Hospital (if you're into soap culture it's referred to as GH). My wife watches all three ABC soaps in a row and the downside is I've become more than slightly interested.

AMC is the worst of the bunch, but Erika Kane still looks decent. OLTL is better than AMC but I don't know the characters that well. Mitch Lawrence was cool, especially when he was blind and trying to pull Dorian. I like the villains it seems...like when Vicki goes mad and 'turns' into Nicki. I suppose that's like my alter-ego 'Bobby'. Bobby is trouble I try to keep him away but sometimes he just 'takes over'.

GH is the best of the three. Somehow I've become familiar with the characters and I started noticing that I was watching it even when the wife left the room. Sonny Corinthos was the first character I liked I guess b/c I could relate to him. Jason too. Carly dyed her hair but she's got these great eyes. It's actually not a bad show.

Embarrassing as it is I choose to disclose the truth to this blog or it ceases its purpose. Evidently soap operas can be addictive and not just housewives get hooked...

24 Hour Party People (2002)

24 Hour Party People (2002)

Genius, Poet, Twat. Yes we're talking about Tony Wilson. Tony was one of those late night telly pioneers who brought punk and alternative music into your sitting room around midnight. He was also the manager of Joy Division and it's later incarnation New Order.

Steve Coogan does a marvellous job...apparently Alan Partridge was based on Tony Wilson. Tosser.

Ridicule (1996)

Ridicule

Pretty good film on Sundance. French film with subtitles about a poor Baron trying to make a better life for his peasants. They live in swampland and to finance a drainage project the Baron needs the backing of Louis XVI. The silly part is the King is only interested in wit. To survive (and win favor) one must have a sharp tongue and razor sharp wit. Interesting and enjoyable. Il n'epargne personne.