Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Saturday, March 24, 2007

UFOs, Alien Kidnapping & the Hindenberg

News Item: France became the first country to open its files on UFOs Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades. The online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists. "It is a world first," said Jacques Patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads the office for the study of "non-identified aerospatial phenomena." French UFO Website


I'm not sure if I really was kidnapped by aliens, but the story below is true.

When I was 13 years old, I would take the same bus every day to school. I had to walk about 10 minutes to the corner to the bus stop (AC Transit) that came around 7:15am. one day, I left at the usual time and I got to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited and finally a bus came and it was the 10:30am bus. I've never worn a watch, so I had no idea what time it was, but somehow about 3 hours went missing from my consciousness, so I've always just figured I was kidnapped by aliens and they couldn't deal with me, so they just put me back.

Or maybe that's why I am the way I am?

I once thought I saw a UFO, but I figured out it was someone from the other side of the street that shot off a Roman Candle right over the top of our house.

I did try to create a UFO on Halloween, but it's probably lucky my plan failed. For some reason, when I was a kid, the Chemistry sets you could buy had lots of dangerous chemicals (life was so much more fun back in the good olde days, eh?) and I figured out how to make Hydrogen gas and in my wierd mind, I thought I would take a couple of dry cleaning plastic bags doubled up for strength, fill them up with hydrogen gas that I was going to make in the garage, put a gondola full of lighter fluid underneath, make a slow burning fuse, which I was able to make with my chemistry set and float it up over the town on Halloween night and when it blew up in a Hindenberg Jr. like explosion, I would see the story in the paper the next day. What an excellent idea, eh? Make hydrogen gas in the garage with a car full of gasoline..



Well, lucky for me and the rest of my family, I failed miserably. and I was truely miserable afterwards. as I was putting a glass funnel into the rubber stopper which I was going to use to mix the chemicals, the glass tube broke (I didn't know you were supposed to use Glycerin to make the glass slide through the hole) and I jammed about 2 inches of the tube into my right hand right between the thumb and index finger in the nice fleshy part and then it broke off making a nice tube where all the blood could nicely squirt out easily and quite a lot of it did flow.

My Dad was watching football and as calmly as I could (this part is fuzzy in my mind because it's so long ago, so maybe it was a panicky scream?) said I needed some help. We went down to the hospital, I had to wait for what seemed like a really long time with a bloody towel wrapped around my hand, the doctor shot me up with some anesthetic and in about 2 seconds stuck a jagged glass tube held in tweezers in front of my face and said: "Is this it?" Those doctors are such jokers!! Since is was scientific glass, it has lead in it, so it will show up in an X-Ray and there was one small piece left in my hand and it floated around for about 10 years, sometimes coming near the surface and causing pain when I shifted gears while driving. Thankfully, it's stuck somewhere deep inside and it just leaves me alone.

The moral of this story is: If you ever get the idea to recreate the Hindenberg disaster, just watch the film of it bursting into flames and think about the "Humanity".


Sunday, January 14, 2007

Q: How Cold Was It This Weekend? (13-Jan-07)

How Cold Was It Jokes

A: It was so cold in Castro Valley that running water in my front courtyard fountain froze.


Here is my photo album link. There are 10 photos in the album.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

2 Cents Question: Have hands-free cell phones made you a safer driver?




Everyone knows that Volvo drivers are the worse drivers in the world because they feel invincible, indestructible and therefore just don't care about you and me. They don't drive crazy, they just don't pay attention because they are basically driving an M60 Tank minus the big cannon and plus airbags all around. If your car, unless it's a Hummer or a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, hits a Volvo, you car is destroyed and totaled. The Volvo might have a small dent and maybe a scratch.

About 15 years ago, I came up with this theory after seeing a Volvo TV ad. There were two women walking out of the forest and they said they had just wrapped their brand new Volvo around a giant tree, but see! Not a scratch on them. Not a care in the world, no matter how stupidly we drive. Crashing into trees - no problem!

Monday, August 28, 2006

2 Cents Question: Has online gambling caused you any grief?



I can no longer vote for Senator Feinstein. She is trying to stop online poker.

"While the advent of the Internet has clearly been beneficial to American society, the same cannot be said for Internet-based gambling activity. Internet gambling is too easily accessible to minors, too subject to fraud and criminal misuse, and too evasive of state gambling laws. For these reasons, I have supported legislation aimed at curbing Internet gambling during my tenure in the Senate. For example, in the 108th Congress I co-sponsored the “Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act” (S. 627), which was introduced by Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Unfortunately, this bill was not signed into law, however, I plan to continue to support limits on Internet gambling should any legislation be considered by the Senate in the 109th Congress.

Again, thank you for your letter. While we do not necessarily agree on the particular topic, I hope that you will continue to write on matters of importance to you. Should you have further questions or comments on this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841."


Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

My letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Dear Senator Feinstein,
While I agree with you on most issues and have voted for you each time you ran for state or federal office, I can't vote for you in the future while you are supporting legislation banning online poker.

Poker is not gambling, it's a skill and luck game and if it was gambling, it wouldn't be legal in California and I'm sure you know there are plenty of card clubs in California where you can play poker and other skill games. Obviously, it should be regulated so that underage kids can't play online, but you and the government shouldn't not infringe on my civil liberties.

I'm not sure how you can stop it anyway, since it's all overseas unless the US sets up a ban like China or Iran does on their internet services. I'm sure you'll agree with me that it isn't in the best interest in our free country. The site where I play has it's HQ on an Indian Reservation in Canada.

California has Lotto and Mega Lotto and Horse Racing and online Horse Race betting, so I'm not sure what is your point. Many other states have casino gambling as we saw when they all washed ashore in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina. California has lots of citizens going to Nevada or the local Indian Casinos. So gambling is everywhere... Why ban Poker online?

I have a personal interest because I won an online poker satellite tournament that got me a $10,000 entry to the World Series of Poker and I hope to do it again next year.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Other Tom Coates' in the news

I've set up a Google alert for any news items with Tom Coates in them. So far, it hasn't been me.

The three Tom Coates' that get in the news the most are English Cricketeer Tom Coates, World Class yachtsman Tom Coates & AIDS specialist Dr. Tom Coates.

Cricket Report from the Camb Times online
Poor batting dooms side to defeats: A POOR batting display from the Wisbech first team proved to be their undoing as they suffered defeat at Kimbolton on Saturday.

Following a string of Tucker Division One draws, Wisbech would have been searching for the points and a good performance but it was not to be.

Things looked good for the visitors when Tom Coates (41) and James Williams (64) settled in to their batting. However, their dismissals led to a collapse and Wisbech were eventually bowled out for 198 after 41.3 overs.


Yachting Report from BYM News
USA. Rolex NYYC Race Week: Tom Coates J-105 Masquerade wins 3 races on Rhode Island Sound

"We couldn't have had a better day," said Tom Coates about today's racing on Rhode Island Sound during New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. As he did at this event in 2004, Coates with his Masquerade took an early lead in the competitive J/105 class; he won all three of today's races. Known around New England as an accomplished sailor, he also is known on his home waters of San Francisco Bay for his success in the same class.

Doctor Tom Coates News from the New York Blade
HIV/AIDS researchers, service providers and activists from across the globe are gathering in Toronto for a six-day International AIDS Conference, which began Aug. 13. About 24,000 people are expected to attend, making it the largest in the now-biennial meeting’s 21-year history.

"We have committed more resources for HIV research than any other government in the world," said Tom Coates, director of the UCLA Program in Global Health. He cited as examples the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, first outlined in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, along with the billions of dollars in AIDS funding allocated to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

"But then we get hung up on issues like promotion of abstinence-only education, or [needle exchange programs]," Coates said. "We get tripped on our own ideology, and our lack of knowing the evidence."