nikkinextdoor:

It’s funny when people say “being a dad is hard”, It’s really not. Be responsible, set a good example, take care of them, spend time with them, protect them, love their mother if you are with her, remember that once you become a father, being selfish is no longer an option and have common sense. The rest will come naturally. Don’t make excuses as why you fail as a father. Most likely you never stopped thinking of yourself.

-Freddie

http://freddashdog.tumblr.com/post/24016406058

I went to wonder land once, and found alice in chains. She said that she had been waiting for the queen to come and take her head. I asked her if she intended to give it willingly, and with a grin she replied to me that her head was meant to be taken. Off with her head the queen had said, but the headsman was nowhere in sight. So the queen asked me if i would be willing to be the headsman this night. I of course said no, claiming i should go, before i wound up bound in chains. So i left wonderland and now here i stand, wondering what, if anything, remains, of alice, who when i met her, though it might upset her, was already ten feet tall. But in wonderland, a foot is measured by hand and therefore ten feet may not be quite so tall after all.

It’s hard to start with a clean slate if you keep erasing the board with a dirty eraser

It isnt supposed to be about barbecues, or boats, or drinks on the shores of some lake, creek, or sea. It isn’t about parties, or fun times. It isn’t about a day off in the sun.
It’s about remembrance. We are to spend this day honoring the memories of those who have perished in whatever service they were in to give us, and sustain, our precious freedom. This day, more than anything else, is about sacrifice. So, wave your flag and crack open your brew of choice, and toast all those whose lives were lost in pursuit of the freedom you have to wave your flag and drink your tonic of choice. Without those souls who have perished we would have no such liberty.
I honor my grandfather, and all the rest of my family members all the way back to the civil war. May they rest in peace in the knowledge that their lives were given so that mine and by extension everyone else’s can be lived free.

So, bought a new weed eater today at lowe’s, and brought it home, and then had to go find a store that sells ethanol free gas (harder than it sounds these days) so i could mix it with 2 cycle oil for the new weed eater. I have a difficult time understanding why a 2 stroke engine requires this extra step when the lawn mower does not. Why can’t it be simple?

itsfullofstars:

Voyager Spacecraft Facts

• A total of 11,000 workyears was devoted to the Voyager project through the Neptune encounter. This is equivalent to one-third the amount of effort estimated to complete the great pyramid at Giza to King Cheops.
• A total of five trillion bits of scientific data had been returned to Earth by both Voyager spacecraft at the completion of the Neptune encounter. This represents enough bits to fill more than seven thousand music CDs.
• Each Voyager spacecraft comprises 65,000 individual parts. Many of these parts have a large number of “equivalent” smaller parts such as transistors. One computer memory alone contains over one million equivalent electronic parts, with each spacecraft containing some five million equivalent parts. Since a color TV set contains about 2500 equivalent parts, each Voyager has the equivalent electronic circuit complexity of some 2000 color TV sets.
• Both Voyagers were specifically designed and protected to withstand the large radiation dosage during the Jupiter swing-by. This was accomplished by selecting radiation-hardened parts and by shielding very sensitive parts. An unprotected human passenger riding aboard Voyager 1 during its Jupiter encounter would have received a radiation dose equal to one thousand times the lethal level.
• A set of small thrusters provides Voyager with the capability for attitude control and trajectory correction. Each of these tiny assemblies has a thrust of only three ounces. In the absence of friction, on a level road, it would take nearly six hours to accelerate a large car up to a speed of 48 km/h (30 mph) using one of the thrusters.
• Voyager’s fuel efficiency (in terms of mpg) is quite impressive. Even though most of the launch vehicle’s 700 ton weight is due to rocket fuel, Voyager 2’s great travel distance of 7.1 billion km (4.4 billion mi) from launch to Neptune resulted in a fuel economy of about 13,000 km per liter (30,000 mi per gallon).
• Barring any serious spacecraft subsystem failures, the Voyagers may survive until the early twenty-first century (~ 2025), when diminishing power and hydrazine levels will prevent further operation. Were it not for these dwindling consumables and the possibility of losing lock on the faint Sun, our tracking antennas could continue to “talk” with the Voyagers for another century or two!

THIS. I remember when first pics of saturn were returned by Voyager 2 when I was a wee little tyke, and it was part of the inspiration behind my love of astronomy. 

Can’t breathe. Stupid whatever this is (cold, allergies, etc) has made its way into the old lungs and making it hard to draw air. Course it doesn’t help that it’s hotter than the hammered down hinges of hell to boot…

I wish i could just say fuck it, jump in my truck, select a heading and drive til the gas and money ran out and just find a place to crash for about ten days of nothing but relaxing…

When people ask me that i typically check my pulse in my wrist. Today, i was asked and i felt my wrist and for a minute felt no pulse. Therefore my only logical conclusion is this: i am now a zombie, er, super soldier… can i eat you?

the-star-stuff:

There’s more water on Jupiter’s moon Europa than there is on Earth

Based on data acquired by NASA’s Galileo satellite, astronomers think the global oceans sloshing around beneath Europa’s icy exterior are likely 2—3 more voluminous than the oceans here on Earth. Not 2—3 times more proportionally, 2—3 times more in total volume.

Illustration by Kevin Hand (JPL/Caltech), Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS); Spotted on NASA APOD

discoverynews:

Mars Tumbleweed Rovers Will Rock, Bounce and Roll on Mars

What if you could reduce a robotic Mars rover down to a simple ball that gets propelled across the Martian plains under wind power alone? If you were on the Red Planet’s surface, the object would most likely look like a beachball gone wild, but the “tumbleweed” rover design is getting some serious attention from NASA as an unorthodox way to reconnoiter Mars.

But as the drivers of rover Opportunity can attest, Mars is covered in rocks and obstacles that require some pretty mean navigation skills.

keep reading

And i’ll hang around as long as you will let me. And i neverr minded standing in the rain. You don’t have to call me darlin’, darlin’. You never even call me by name

moderation:

Opportunity Gets a View From The Edge

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The rover Opportunity captured a view into Endeavour crater as a low Sun cast a long shadow in this image, acquired back on March 9.

Endeavour is a large crater — 14 miles (22 km) wide, it’s about the same area as the city of Seattle. Opportunity arrived at its edge in August of 2011 after several years of driving across the Meridiani Plains.

Opportunity is currently the only operational manmade object on the surface of Mars… or any other planet besides Earth, for that matter. Its a distinction it will hold until the arrival of Mars Science Laboratory at Gale Crater this August.

From the NASA news release by JPL’s Guy Webster:

The scene is presented in false color to emphasize differences in materials such as dark dunes on the crater floor. This gives portions of the image an aqua tint.

Opportunity took most of the component images on March 9, 2012, while the solar-powered rover was spending several weeks at one location to preserve energy during the Martian winter. It has since resumed driving and is currently investigating a patch of windblown Martian dust near its winter haven.

Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped communicating in 2010. Since landing in the Meridiani region of Mars in January 2004, Opportunity has driven 21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers).

(via universetoday)