In Napoli, Italy, garbage is burned. And aside from the smoke that puts into the air, it is common for sand to blow up into the air from Africa, travel over here, and rain dirt on to our cars. Suffice it to say that the atmosphere is less than spectacular here. They say that just living in Napoli is like smoking a half pack of cigarettes a day. Last week we had a lot of rain, and I look forward to that because it serves to clear the air. I have this little porch like place that's o...

I have been playing music all my life (43 years so far). I've critically listened to the best the world has offered. Of the jazz piano players I have listened to, Art Tatum was stunning in his technique, Oscar Peterson with his technique and his tone, but Hiromi Uehara is the first musician that has ever forced joy into me, regardless of my mood. Believe you in whatever deity - the world or God or whatever - has produced something beyond "Master of her instrument.." (Should that be ...

I replied to one of the standard religious discussions with this. Careful not to pigeonhole what *I* think by it. There is more here than meets the casual eye. A doctor walked up to a musician. The following conversation ensued. Doctor: There is a God. Musician: There is? Cool! Where is it? Doctor: Well, God is in heaven. Musician: Where is heaven? Doctor: No one knows for sure. Not here? Or maybe here? No one knows. Musician: Hmm, ok. Well when did God get there? Doctor: No o...

This was sent to me by a friend. It's making its way around the net I suppose, so you may have already seen it. I rather like it, and so I'm sharing with you all. SUGGESTED PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS… My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of the Iraq regime has been completed. Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete. This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. This ...

I'm not sure why I am doing this - well yes I am - because credit should go where credit is due. You only have to read blogs posted here on a daily basis for a few days to see that there's a lot of less than quality stuff to sort through. Some of it is mine. I've been trying to get to know the regular posters at JU a little better lately because I'm on leave, and I have the time. Having done so, I've seen some pretty good writers and some fairly funny people, and AS I did so, I just h...

It seems a group of cheerleaders are in the news for helping the police solve a hit and run. Link I just wanted to hip everyone to this amazing story of 16 girls collectively remembering 8 alphanumeric characters in sequence. Such a stunning accomplishment by today's standards, or rather "Today's" standards since it warranted the captain of the Cheerleader Squad getting airtime on the long running American morning show for it. Who says our kids are getting dumber? Not Katie Couric!...

Like many old school gamers, I've been following rather closely the development of D&D Online. Turbine Entertainment (of Asheron's Call fame) has entered the alpha testing phase of their latest labor of love hoping to bring the magic of tabletop roleplaying to the online computer game arena. And of course I signed up to beta test. Hopefully I'll have better luck than I did with World of Warcraft One of the age old debates hit their forums almost immediately. Should the game have na...

Manopeace just published a forum post about CNN posting a list of the 9/11 victims, by name, location and residence. "Photos are included," he solemnly interred. "May their families find comfort in the fact that others share their sorrow and pledge never to allow anything like this to ever happen again." How anyone can try to find an excuse for this act of terror is beyond him. There is none. Link

How is your inner sight? You'll need some to get very far with this fun little puzzle game. It starts out easy but gets really difficult quickly. Planarity Here's my score prior to blowing a fuse and quitting: (I want to meet the person that can solve level 10 with a bonus.)

In this post, I polled the community to see how many people were actually in the JoeUser community. I did this in reference to an article which was offering direction to said community at large in an effort to bring JU back to what that writer apparently felt was "the good ole days." It was a noble effort, but as you can see if you look at the responses I got, the community is only about 18 people, so hardly necessary. That isn't really so, of course. Of the people that answered, my...

While reading Little Whip's forum post on manipulating points , I thought of a question I'm really curious about the answer to. How long have you been here everyone, and have you ever looked to blog elsewhere? For me, I've been here since 9/30/2003 12:11:02 AM and have never looked for another place to be. Does loyalty count for anything anywhere? Even here? Your thoughts, please. I'll be bumping this if necessary because A) when I write, most JUs are sleeping, and I want to ...

I decided to forego the Top Ten list of things I have realized I have taken for granted about the states since I moved to Italy and skip right to the #1 thing. Power. I had the following things plugged in and running yesterday: Refrigerator, two computers with 500W power supplies, Mobile air conditioning unit (cools one room), electric fan, a few sorted electric clocks, Plasma TV, and an XBox. Everything else was off. No lights, there was plenty from outside. It was this way for sever...

So it was a rather steamy Italian day and I was soaking in a bathtub with a copy of Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin. Doesn't everyone? Without going into a big deal about physics - something that is really just a hobby for me and of which I therefore do not feel in any way qualified to "go into a big deal" about - I was taken immediately by what seemed to me an assumption that was being made that might perhaps shouldn't be. The book is about what they call the ToE. Theor...