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If there was ever any doubt about the importance of the International Space Station, it should be put to rest now, as it is to be used as launching platform for the first paper airplanes to perform atmospheric reentry. As published in this Science article, the Japan Origami Plane Association and the University of Tokyo hope to launch 100 folded paper airplanes, constructed from a heat-resistant paper, from the station to descend to earth with multi-lingual messages providing instructions on how to return any that are found. A 7cm long model was tested in a high-speed wind tunnel and shown to survive airspeeds of Mach 7!

If we assume all 100 planes survive reentry, and the earth is 70% covered by water, then 30 planes should land on dry land. Now the question is, how much of that land is actually populated such that there is any hope of finding the plane? Even in populated areas, I’d predict it is no better than 50/50 chances that somebody actually picks it up. Still, it would be cool. They have not yet, it seems, gotten a go ahead from NASA for this little experiment. But, what could it hurt? It can’t cost much to launch some paper airplanes up along with a shuttle!

So I’m here killing time at Panera again; this time waiting for Mom and Dustin’s  delayed flight to get into LAX. Today’s observation involves computer lust. The guy across the room from me is setup with this laptop, which really isn’t a LAPtop at all! But if you are looking for portable screen real estate….wow. At first, I thought he had brought a stand-alone monitor to Panera with him! My laptop feels so small now. Of course, I’m going to walk out of here comfortably with mine in my backpack. I don’t think I’d want to carry his very far!

Engadget review:  http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/01/dell-xps-m2010-reviewed/

I had my first Disney theme park experience recently. Mary finally took me after talking about it forever! All in all, I’d have to say I was pretty impressed. Nothing like the roller coasters of Busch Gardens or Kings Dominions, that’s for sure. In fact, there were only really two rides that qualify as roller-coasters as far as I’m concerned. But they definitely go all out on the immersion factor. Whether it is the stars flying by in the dark and the music of Space Mountain, holographic ghosts on haunted house, or images projected on sheets of dry ice smoke, I spent a lot of time going, “Wow that’s cool! How’d they do that?”.

They also really know how to run a theme park. Compared to others I’ve been to, it is way cleaner, people are nicer, and they amazingly efficient at moving a line through a ride. I mean, they run double loading stations, have non stop loading on conveyor belts, and have a “Fastpass” system, so you can get a certain number of bypass the line passes per hour, and can then come back at a future time (marked on the pass, depending on demand) and bypass most of the line. Also cool: Interactive rides. On Astroblaster, you get to go through the ride shooting targets with a laser, competing for a high score. Nothing like competition to make the ride more fun . The California Tower Hotel (Tower of Terror) was also pretty cool. I can almost see why people would want to travel across the world to visit the place. For a young disney fan at the right age, I think it would seem downright magical. Pictures can be found here. Also, this girl was going crazy on a rope on the Lion King float in the parade!

It’s time for the second place in the “Places to Go” series: The Bonneville Salt Flats. You may have heard of it before, as it is home to the annual Bonneville Speed Week, and has been the location for many land speed records in the past. It’s about 110 miles west of Salt Lake City, and while visiting a friend there, we decided to make the drive out to see it. We weren’t sure what to expect. Would there be a visitor’s center? Could we even get to it? Could we just go out and drive on it? We certainly hoped so! Turns out we could. More after the jump…

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I finally made it to Disneyland yesterday! I got to help buzz lightyear save the galaxy! Disney was cool…more on that later.

So it seems Trader Joe’s is opening a store in Richmond (Short Pump, I think). Believe me when I say, that this is good news for any one in Richmond! You will now be able to go to TJ’s and purchase all the ingredients to make one of my favorite quick dinners:

What you need:

- Chicken Breasts, sliced into strips
- Some green pepper, sliced
- Can of sliced bamboo shoots
- Trader Joe’s Red Thai Curry Sauce
- Optionally, some chopped up garlic

That’s it. Just stir fry the chicken in a Wok or other such skillet with some peanut oil (or oil of your choice, and I like to season the oil with garlic prior to adding the chicken). Stir fry the Veggies, put the chicken back in (if you ever took it out!) , pour the sauce over it, and let it heat through. In the mean time, I hope, you’ve been cooking some rice. I also hope you’ve gotten the water content just right, and have a neat-o rice scoop so you can get that perfect restaurant looking ball of sticky rice to serve with it.

Enjoy! I’ve become a recipe blog, I guess. I had to add a new category for it! I have about as much topic focus as I have readers around here, it seems.

Oh the things that cross my desktop…

I present to you:  Dancing Parakeet (Courtesy of the Guitar Girl, who was nice enough to point it out to me)

These have got to be the coolest looking primates ever! And, altruistic: They were willing in experiments to give crickets to a friend!

Image from Science

What’s better than that, right?

If you know me, you could well be asking, “shouldn’t you be doing something more productive than playing with the Gimp?” The answer, of course, is yes. There are several more important things I should be accomplishing tonight. None the less, here I am. I was playing with the rapid fire mode on my camera a couple weeks ago, so I had the material. I thought it’d be cool in a filmstrip.

Simi Valley, where I work, is home to the Reagan Presidential Library where the republican debate was held this Wednesday. It seems Dr. Paul (or at least a large contigent of his supporters) was staying at the hotel down the street from my work, because in addition to several smaller vehicles, I saw the what was probably the longest limo I’ve ever seen plastered with Ron Paul propaganda. Of course, I don’t know this was actually the man’s limo; it could have been a really enthusiastic supporter, but I doubt it.

The license plate: “Big Star”. Unfortunately, it was dark, so the pictures didn’t come out so good, but here it is:

(Click thumbnail for full-size)