RIP John Glenn

We lost a great American, Astronaut John Glenn, on December 8, 2016. He was a hero of mine – and not just because of the 1962 NASA hype (they kind of had to do that). He was a hero because he did what he said was going to do. He did it well. He cared, he took responsibility, and when they benched him from space (see 1962 hype), he kept on going. He served his country as a Senator. And then he bulled and cajoled and figured out a way, and he got back into space at age 77, the oldest American to go out there – so far.

John Glenn, Astronaut and Senator and then Astronaut again

He was just a cool guy. Rest in peace, Colonel Glenn. You’re the best 🙂

Cast your vote today!

I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled commercial enterprises pronto. But today is an exciting, scary, American day – please, to all my U.S. viewers and customers, go vote! It matters.

And stay tuned!

Yay Kansas City Royals!

Oh, I had to say it. Mostly I stay away from partisan sports, but these guys are right in my back yard! And the 5th game of the ALDS contest was so exciting – that 8th inning home run? Classic baseball excitement!

So yay Royals and may you win your way to the Series!

Art Flea KC

No, this post is not about fleas. It’s about a Flea Market – the coolest one you’ll ever find 🙂

ArtFleaKC Blog
ArtFleaKC is a group of artists who got together and rented an extremely terrific loft-type space, gathered up tables and tea (or at least coffee), and put together a weekly Flea Market for handmade, artist original goods. They’re just gearing up for holiday sales so this is a great time to check them out.

Handknitted goods, some fine looking jewelry, paintings, drawings, and more every Saturday – and get this: every item is under $50! (Ahem… there might be a few exceptions. Artists are allowed to bring a few higher-ticket pieces. But I mean, a FEW.) The whole idea of this get-together is to find art that’s not only cool and original – but affordable.

Every Saturday in KC at 16th and Holmes, 10-5. Check it out!

And they have a magician 🙂

Always check your site!

Once a site is running, a lot of it’s automatic – and it’s a relief to have it be that way. You add new things sometimes, of course update your blog (hopefully!), add Twitter comments, and like that… but the site is good, it’s active, it’s running….

It pays to check through it once a week or so, anyway. It’d been an unusually quiet early July, but hey, that happens sometimes. People are out at the beach, not so much with the shopping, and people are broker these days, and that’s understandable, and…like that.

So thankfully my DH mentioned something that made me go in and doublecheck – and my shopping cart was gone! Well it was an easy fix, it was a silly glitch thingie (which was my fault), and it was fixed presto as soon as I took the time to look, and fix. But suppose I hadn’t? Suppose I had gone weeks and weeks, wondering why no sales, wondering what I’d done, wondering why… well, you get the idea.

An easy fix. I just had to go LOOK.

Check your site periodically! Pretend you’re a customer. Are things still working? Is it easy to use? Are there bad links? Go check!!

Star Trek: Scents. I’m not kidding.

I would say “I’ve seen it all now” but I’m totally not going down that road. Still, this one made me laugh. I was bumbling around this morning, looking at this and that, first cup of coffee, have to Get Moving in a Minute, and stumbled on this: Star Trek: the perfumes...really
Star Trek: perfumes. Really.

And they have one named “Red Shirt”. They have named a perfume after all the poor suckers who died! I mean, it’s funny and all, but… please explain the marketing strategy to me. Why would some committee somewhere think that is a winning strategy?

I got a chuckle out of this whole thing, mostly, but… Red Shirts? Maybe I’m just missing the point?

Artificial Intelligence, Part 2

I just saw a revised mention of the article I talked about earlier. Now it says that the university (in Amsterdam I think? I’m hurrying so not sure right now) – anyway, the people who developed the “intelligent programs” have a robot working with their programs.

They named the robot Adam. And they have already made a second robot. Named Eve.

Insert Twilight Zone music here.

Artificial Intelligence – Robots that can reason?

Wow. Just saw an article from Reuters that says some scientists are developing “robots (computers anyway) that can think”.

Of course that’s an oversimplification designed to get headlines, but it does say that programs have been developed that can reason and create hypotheses, determine and then check results. It’s on a baby scale so far but still… wow.

Old Univac Computer
Talk about a double-edged sword. The article talks about how these programs could “take over much of the routine work in research laboratories”. This would be terrific for efficiency (and probably cost-savings). It could also lead to, well, all those computers-take-over-the-world-scenarios that SF has loved for years.

“Terminator”, anyone?

Organic Gardening – at the White House!

I was so tickled to learn that the Obamas (or somebody on their team, I guess) have decided that it’s a good idea to do some organic gardening at their new house 🙂 This is the kind of thing that’s only a symbol, I suppose, but it’s a pretty terrific symbol.

Together with a bunch of school kids (I know, I know, what a photo op) Mrs. Obama’s going to start an organic garden at the White House. Read more about it here and here.
Humor is always of the good - Obama, gardening at the White House
And somebody’s got a sense of humor about it (photo mock-up courtesy of Eat The View).