This Weekend's Schedule

4/21 Wed - 6:00pm - Bikes on Beale Kickoff - Beale St
4/22 Thu - 6:00-9:00pm- Beale St East End Grand Opening - Ground Zero / Red Rooster ($5)
4/22 Fri - 6:00 - 10:00pm - Peabody Rooftop Party w Rhoney G. - Peabody Rooftop
4/23 Fri - 7:00pm-12:00am- Calhoun's 2nd Place Winner Party - Calhoun's
4/24 Sat - 2:00-5:00pm - SkyFest 2010 (Free) - Shelby Farms
4/24 Sat - 4:00-8:00pm - Memphis Brewfest ($35) - AutoZone Park
4/24 Sat - 7:00pm - New Science System ($10) - New Daisy Theater
4/25 Sun - 10:00am-5:00pm - Down to Earth Festival (Free) - Shelby Farms
4/25 Sun - 1:00pm - Beale St Wine Race - Beale St

This Weekend's Schedule

Tuesday - 6:00pm - SMA April Meeting - Bosco's Brewery
Tuesday - 7:00pm - Ani Di Franco - New Daisy Theater
Wednesday - 7:30pm - The Found Footage Festival ($10) - Studio on Square
Thursday - 6:00 - 10:00pm - Peabody Rooftop Party Season Opener ($10) - Peabody Rooftop
Thursday thru Sunday - Various Times - Africa in April - Robert Church Park
Friday - 7:00pm - Galactic feature Cyrill Neville - Minglewood Hall
Friday - 7:05pm - Memphis Redbird Opening Weekend - AutoZone Park
Saturday - 7:00am-1:00pm - Memphis Farmers Market Opening Day - Central Station Pavilion
Saturday - 10:00am - 5:00pm - 8th Southern Hot Wing Contest and Festival ($5)- GE Patterson + Webster, S. Main District
Saturday - 9:30pm - 1:30am - SNOZBerry (No cover for UFO, $3 Non-UFO) - Flying Saucer
Sunday - 12:00-6:00pm - Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (FREE) - Riverside Bluffs

This Weekend's Schedule

Tuesday - 7:00pm - Grizz v. Chicago Bulls - FedExForum
Tuesday - 7:30pm - The White Stripes: Under the Great White Northern Lights ($5) - Studio on the Square
Wednesday - 7:30pm - Grizz @ Rockets - SportsSouth
Wednesday - 8:00pm - Tigers v. St John's - FedExForum
Wednesday - All Day - St Patrick's Day - Multiple events on Beale St / Downtown bars and restaurants - check local listings
Thursday - 7:30pm - 2 Across - Beignet Cafe
Friday - 6:00pm - Steve + Alexis Going Away Party - Maloney's
Friday - 7:00pm - John Mayer w Michael Franti and Spearhead - FedExForum
Saturday - 7:00pm - Grizz v. Warriors - FedExForum
Sunday -

Amelia Earhart Resting Place Found, Maybe Eaten by Giant Coconut Crabs

Researchers believe they have found the final resting place of Amelia Earhart, the world-famous aviator. Bones were found in the tiny coral atoll, Nikumaroro was some 300 miles southeast of Earhart's target destination.

A woman's shoe, an empty bottle and a sextant box whose serial numbers are consistent with a type known to have been carried by Fred Noonan, her navigator, were all found near the site where the bones were discovered.

But only partial bones were found. Many of the bones were carried off by giant coconut crabs and there is a remote chance some of the bones might still survive deep in the crab burrows.

The coconut crab is the largest land-living arthropod in the world. Many island nations considered the coconut crab a delicacy and an aphrodisiac.


Sources:
http://news.discovery.com/history/amelia-earhart-resting-place.html
http://moarrawr.com/coconut-crabs-natures-worst-thing/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_crabs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart

US Invasion of Canada

In an actual war plan drawn up in the 1930's known as "War Plan Red" (obsoleted in 1939 and declassified in 1974), US military strategists planned to invade Canada. The scenario goes:

• A joint Army-Navy overseas force to captures the port city of Halifax, cutting the Canadians off from their British allies.
• US forces seize Canadian power plants near Niagara Falls, so they freeze in the dark.
• The U.S. Army invades on three fronts -- marching from Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, charging out of North Dakota to grab the railroad center at Winnipeg, and storming out of the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario.
• The U.S. Navy seizes the Great Lakes and blockades Canada's Atlantic and Pacific ports.

On the other hand, Canadian military strategists developed a similar plan to invade the United States in 1921 -- nine years before their American counterparts created War Plan Red.

A noted Canadian psychologist and author conjectured whether Fort Drum, the huge Army base in Upstate New York was a staging ground for a US invasion. "Why would the Americans put an Army base in such a wretched, frigid wilderness? he wondered. Could it be there to . . . fight Canada?"

In 1935, the largest peacetime manuevers occurred at Fort Drum and surrounding areas. Approximately 36,500 soldiers came from throughout the Northeast to take part in war games.

The dream of invading Canada lives on in the American psyche, occasionally manifesting itself in bizarre ways. Movies and cartoons for instance like Canadian Bacon (1995) starring Alan Alda and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999).




Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Drum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901412.html

Nikola Tesla - The Forgotten Father of Wi-Fi

This sounds like the Internet and Wi-fi world we live today being described here:

• Secure government communications service
• Voice communications around the globe
• Universal distribution of stock tickers, news and weather
  
• World musical distribution
• Synchronization of clocks around the world with astronomical precision
• Worldwide transmission of texts
  
• Global positioning for navigators
• World printing on land and sea
• Worldwide distribution photos and drawings

Actually, in fact, these features came from a promotional brochure of Nikola Tesla's "World System" in 1906.

In 1900, Tesla began construction of a wireless broadcasting tower on Long Island, New York. Tesla intended to use it to link the world's telephone and telegraph and to transmit data. A lot of mystery and controversy came about Tesla's tower. It was never completed and was believed to have been sold as scrap metal during World War I.

Nikola Tesla (b. 1856), an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer, immigrated from Serbia into the US in 1884. He is quite possibly the one of the greatest inventors in modern history. But he is a virtual unknown in the textbooks and the general public.

He was the first to demonstrate wireless and long-distance communication via radio 10 years ahead of Marconi. In his lifetime, Tesla produced 800 patents and numerous inventions which include Alternating Current (AC) which is the basis of all electrical distribution as we know today.

He spent the last 10 years of his life living in a hotel room and died penniless. He tore up a Westinghouse contract that could have made him the world's first billionaire partly because of the implications that would have in his future inventions and his friendship with George Westinghouse. Thomas Edison spent the rest of his life trying to discredit Tesla in what was known as "War of the Currents".

Some of his ideas were so far-fetched during his time and people just didn't get it and considered him a mad scientist. Lacking money, he wrote his ideas in countless notebooks. However, upon his death in 1943, the U.S. authors confiscated his files, classifying them Top Secret, and they spent years making copies proving the value of his ideas. It is only now that his works are being appreciated and put into modern, useful technological innovations.

Here are some of this ideas way ahead of his time.

• Remote Control. In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat to the US military, believing that the military would want things such as radio-controlled torpedoes.

• Wireless Energy Transfer. Tesla was able to power 200 light bulbs without wires 26 miles away! Today, inductive coupling technology can wirelessly power toothbrushes, cell phones and gadgets.

• Free Energy. Tesla envisioned using the earth and sun as renewable energy. Today, we have solar power and microwave technology.
  

• Death Ray. Tesla designed a directed-energy super weapon using charged particles to project beams capable of destroying 10,000 enemy planes from a distance of 250 miles! In recent times, the US has delved into developing "Star Wars" weaponry aka SDI as Tesla substantively anticipated.

Sources:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/wireless-power1.htm
http://everythingishistory.com/2010/03/04/5-nikola-tesla-innovations-way-ahead-of-their-time/
http://www.electroherbalism.com/Bioelectronics/Tesla/TeslaversusEdison.htm
"Tesla, Master of Lightning" by Margaret Cheney & Robert Uth. B&N Publishing, 1999.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_tesla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative

This Weekend's Schedule

Monday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v New Jersey - FedExForum
Tuesday - 6:00pm - SMA March Meeting - Local GastroPub
Wednesday - 6:30pm - Grizzlies @ Boston - FSTN
Thursday- 9:30pm - SnoZBerry - Flying Saucer
Friday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v New York Knicks - FedExForum
Saturday - 4:00pm - St Patrick's Day Parade - Beale St
Saturday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v Denver - FedExForum
Saturday - 9:00pm - Pacquiao v Clottey - PPV
Saturday - 12:00pm - River City Brewers Festival - Handy Park
Saturday - 10:00pm - Melanie Miller's Going Away - Downtown
Sunday - 5:00pm - March Madness Selection Sunday - CBS

This Weekend's Schedule

Monday - 5:30pm - 9:00pm - Memphis Music Monday - Hard Rock Cafe
Monday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v Portland - FedExForum
Monday - 7:00pm - Jazz Collective LIVE - Majestic Grille
Tuesday - 7:00pm - Cross Canadian Ragweed - Minglewood Hall
Wednesday - 8:00pm - Tigers @ UAB - CSS
Wednesday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies @ New Orleans - FSTN
Thursday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies @ Chicago - SportSouth
Thursday thru Sunday - Various times - Ruchee Madness 2010 - Downtown
Friday - 7:30pm - Eric Clapton w Roger Daltrey - FedExForum
Saturday - 12:00pm - Tigers v Tulsa - FedExForum
Saturday - 6:00pm - BrianC + RebS Birthday Bash - Downtown
Saturday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v San Antonio - FedExForum

This Weekend's Schedule

Tuesday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v Lakers - FedExForum
Wednesday - 6:00pm - Grizzlies @ Wizards - FSTN
Wednesday - 7:00pm - Tigers @ Houston - No TV Coverage
Wednesday - ? - BrianC Birthday - TBD
Thursday -
Friday - 6:00pm - 9:00pm - South Main Art Trolley Tour Night - S. Main
Friday - 7:00pm - Sister Hazel - Minglewood Hall
Saturday - 6:00pm - Grizzlies @ Knicks - SportSouth
Saturday - 7:00pm - Tigers v. So. Miss - FedExForum
Saturday - 8:00pm - Slave to the Metal Festival - New Daisy Theater
Sunday - 11:00am - 2:00pm - Soup Sunday - FedExForum
Sunday - 2:00pm - 6:00pm - AbunDance - Playhouse on the Square

Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo named to the USA National Team !!

Congratulations to the Memphis Grizzlies Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo for being named to the 2010-2012 USA National Team !! They will compete in world games which include competitions like the FIBA World Championship in 2010 and the 2012 Olympics in London (if we qualify).

Here is the full list of 27 of the NBA stars that made it:
Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies)
O. J. Mayo (Memphis Grizzlies)
Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets)
Carlos Boozer (Utah Jazz)
Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors)
Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers)
Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic)
LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Chris Paul (New Orleans Hornets)
Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat)
Deron Williams (Utah Jazz)
Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers)
Amar’e Stoudemire (Phoenix Suns)
LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland Trail Blazers)
Chauncey Billups (Denver Nuggets)
Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers)
Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers)
Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers)
Al Jefferson (Minnesota Timberwolves)
David Lee (New York Knicks)
Brook Lopez (New Jersey Nets)
Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Kendrick Perkins (Boston Celtics)
Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls)
Gerald Wallace (Charlotte Bobcats)
Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Toxic Garbage Island and BPA

Somewhere north of the Pacific Ocean, 7 days sailing from the nearest landmass lies the "North Pacific Gyre", a vortex created by little wind strong high pressure systems. Trapped in the gyre is a toxic garbage island about twice the size of Texas. It is not an island garbage dump floating in the sea but a gargantuan messy soup of plastic bits and pieces accumulated from years and years dumping of plastic waste: bags, bottles, containers, stryrofoam, ship garbage, etc.

The world produces 7 million tons of plastics a day. Roughly 100 billion polyethelene plastic bags are produced in a year in North American alone. About 46,000 pieces cover a square mile.

Plastics are non-biodegradeable, however, it does go through photodegradation meaning it breaks down into smaller and smaller parts but it's still all plastic. Plastics contain chemicals believed to be potentially toxic, particularly bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA is the building block of polycarbonate plastics. Some Type 3 and Type 7 (seen as a number and arrows symbol on plastic containers) may leach BPA. BPA can contaminate the environment either directly or through degradation of products containing BPA, such as ocean-borne plastic trash.

When plastic is broken up into tiny particles, it also acts like a sponge for other toxic pollutants in land and water. Red and orange plastic particles are favored and ingested by most marine animals because they look like shrimp or plankton. Humans receive BPA thru plastic lining of cans and plastic bottles. Scientists contend that BPA is in our diet and there is low-level but regular low-level exposure.

Recent studies indicate BPA links to genetic, reproductive diseases and cancer. More studies and contentious debate is ongoing. Chemical industry experts say that until BPA is proved to have ill effects it should continue to be manufactured and used, because it is economical, strong and offers unique features.

If you are concerned, what can you do ?

• Don’t microwave polycarbonate plastic food containers. Polycarbonate is strong and durable, but over time it may break down from over use at high temperatures.

• Polycarbonate containers that contain BPA usually have a #7 on the bottom. Type 2 or Type 5 are recommended.

• Reduce your use of canned foods.

• When possible, opt for glass, porcelain or stainless steel containers, particularly for hot food or liquids.

• Use drinking bottles or baby bottles that are BPA free.

• Recycle and don't reuse
  

Click this to see a graphic of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch


Sources:
www.wikipedia.com
www.vbs.tv Episode: "Toxic Garbage Island"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a
http://www.medicinenet.com/plastic/article.htm
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm
http://www.recyclenow.org/r_plastics.html

New Downtown Businesses - Heard and Rumored

• Aldo's Pizza Pies (Pizza Family Resto) - 64 S. Main. - Spring 2010
• Lenny's (Fastfood) - Peabody Place - Spring 2010
• Central Station Park (Community Garden, Green Area & Recycle Center) - Front St. - TBD
• Front Street Trolley Extension - Rumored
• Memphis College of Art - Fall 2010
• Besso’s (Coffee and Gelato Bar) - Spring 2010
• Ozzie's Restaurant and Sports Bar - Beale St - Rumored
• The Horizon Condominiums - Riverside Drive - Foreclosure
• Cafe Eclectic - Harbortown - Feb 2010
• City Market Groceries & Deli - 66 S. Main (Radio City Flats Grd level) - May 2010
• AIA-Memphis - South Main - March 2010

If you hear of any new downtown businesses opening in the near future, let us know.

Panhandling and Dead Squirrels

Here are some creative ways to stop panhandling:

1. Throw a dead squirrel into the vehicles of people who give money to panhandlers. People are turned off by stinking squirrel carcasses in their cars so they will stop giving money to bums. Though we might run out of squirrels downtown, which apparently is the trend at the moment. Maybe this suggestion is only good on Squirrel Days.

2. Get an job application form from your local fast food or supermarket and put it in an envelop. When a panhandler asks you for money, give him the envelop. Maybe he'll stop and fill out the form and apply for the job. Though he may need to ask for more money to buy a pen or a suit.

3. Give them coupons. Don't trash your Sunday paper coupons, cut them up and categorize them. Throw away coupons for Tylenol or Pepto-Bismol. Give the rest to panhandlers. In a way you won't feel guilty for not giving to legitimate homeless poor people, but they can use these coupons to save on food and stuff and they can't use it for alcohol or drugs.

This Weekend's Schedule

Tuesday - 5:30pm - SMA Rally in Support of Pan Handling and Single Beer Sales Ordinances - Center City Commission
Tuesday - 11:00am-2:00am- Kooky Mardi Gras - Kooky Canuck
Tuesday - 6:00pm - Mardi Gras Party - Beignet Cafe
Tuesday - 6:00pm - Annual Mardi Gras Push Parade and Klub Krawl - Beale St
Tuesday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v Sun - FedExForum
Wednesday - 6:00pm - Tigers v Tulane - CSS
Wednesday - 7:00pm - Grizzlies v Raptors - SportsSouth
Thursday - 9:00pm - Dynaflow (No Cover) - Earnestine and Hazel's
Friday - 7:00pm Grizzlies v Heat - FedExForum
Saturday - 7:00pm - Tigers v SMU - FedExForum
Saturday - 9:00pm - Danny's Bday - Downtown

Happy Squirrel Day

Been a long time since there was a post in this blog.

Anyways, I came across a story of a dead squirrel in South Main. What's up with these squirrels? Do they still exist downtown? There have been known incidents of squirrels attacking humans with bagels, maybe it there is a squirrel serial killer on the loose?

Squirrels are from the family Scuiridae, which include chipmunks, priarie dogs and woodchucks (aka Ground Hogs). It's been murderously cold lately, could the squirrel have succombed to the weather? Ditch Ground Hog Day, maybe we should use the squirrel as a fortune teller of the weather. Let's have a Squirrel Day. If the ground squirrel comes out of its burrow and dies, then we know that the temperature is murderously cold. Happy Squirrel Day.