- Normally, going to a car show on a weekend doesn’t sound like much fun. Unless you enjoy hanging out with people who possess far too strong an affinity for their vehicle and spend more modifying and keeping it in tip-top shape than they do on their kids and have nothing better to do with your time than look at the exposed engine of a tricked-out ’45 Ford, car shows won't appeal much to you. But on rare occasions, a car show can be worth your time. This is one of those times and Lancaster, Pa. is the place. This weekend, if you visit Lancaster County, you can see the first-ever certified flying car. No, this isn’t some sci-fi hoax. It’s legit, athough the flying car will remain earthbound for the weekend. The car is called the Maverick (named after John McCain?), and was created by Florida-based company ITEC. Why is this flying phenomenon headed to Pennsylvania? It’s in town for Mission Fest at the Lancaster County Convention Center and ITEC is undoubtedly hoping that a few car enthusiasts with cash to burn will see it and plunk down the $84,000 it takes to buy one. "The controls are very similar to a normal car. You have a horn, lights and then we step to the back and this is where all the action happens. This is the engine drive system. The drive system is very unique. The engine will either drive the propeller or it will drive the rear tires. Now you have to be careful with this because the engine compared to the weight of the vehicle. If you push the accelerator too hard, you might just go vertical," said ITEC official Jaime Saint. Even if you can't afford a Maverick, any licensed driver can legally take it for a spin. Or you can find something else, something much more worthwhile, to do with your weekend, but it’s your choice. Shouldn’t be that difficult for anyone who chooses Option B……….
- Either chivalry is alive or there are still far too many backward-thinking people in this here world of ours. The tale of Iowa high school wrestler Joel Northrup falls into one of those two categories. Northrup was one of the favorites to win his weight class but intentionally defaulted on his first-round state tournament match rather than face…….a girl. That girl, Cedar Falls freshman Cassy Herkelman, is one of the first girls to ever qualify for the event. Yet when her name came up opposite Northrup’s in the bracket, he refused to wrestle her. Why? Northrup felt that a boy wrestling against Herkleman or fellow 112-pounder Ottumwa sophomore Megan Black just wouldn’t be right. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times," Northrup explained. "As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa." No, my man, it’s unfortunate that you are still stuck in the 1950s, when women belonged in the kitchen wearing an apron. While cracking on a high school athlete is normally in poor form, Northrup stepped right into this one. Why does it not surprise me that he’s home-schooled? Home schoolers tend to be……well, weird. How could you not be when your “peers” are your brothers and sisters and the top choice for the location of prom is your garage? Northrup, a sophomore who was 35-4 wrestling for Linn-Mar High this season, can say whatever he wants about it not feeling right for him to wrestle a girl, but the bottom line is Herkleman qualified for the tournament and entered well aware of the physical nature of wrestling. She isn’t asking you to treat her differently because she’s a girl and no one would look down on you for beating her. For the record, Herkleman automatically advanced to the second round of the tournament and her next match is Friday. As for Northrup the girl dodger, Linn-Mar athletics director Scott Mahmens said the school would not penalize him for defaulting. Because he defaulted and didn't forfeit, Northrup is eligible to compete in consolation rounds where he should be able to avoid another dreaded matchup with a girl. Thanks for setting society back a few years because of your weird take on what should have been a non-issue, Joel…………
- Vote rigging is awesome. The idea that a candidate is so insecure in his or her chances to win that altering the will of the people to conform it to what that candidate wants is the best available option is equal parts hilarious and pathetic. When vote-rigging allegations are raised before a vote even takes place, the comedy skyrockets. Such is the case in Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni is seeking a fourth term in the country's national elections Friday. However, voters are wary of the vote’s legitimacy as they prepare to head to the polls. Opposition leaders are already casting aspersions on the transparency of the vote, the east African nation’s fourth presidential elections since the reinstitution of multiparty politics in 1996. Around 14 million Ugandans are registered to cast ballots for presidential and parliamentary races, meaning if the voter turnout there is anything like the United States, about 2 million people will show up to vote in what is expected to be the most hotly contested election in the country’s history. Museveni is the favorite to win a fourth term in office and extend his nearly 25 years in power, but he faces his stiffest challenge yet from rival and retired Army Colonel Kizza Besigye. Besigye - who has challenged Museveni in the two previous elections. Besigye’s chances are pegged higher this time around as he heads the Inter-Party Coalition, comprised of four parties that have united against the ruling National Resistance Movement. In actuality, Besigye’s higher odds for victory have less to do with him and more to do with the fact that, like deposed Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and other ousted or soon-to-be-ousted dictators around the world, Museveni’s support has steadily declined over the past 15 years. He received 75 percent of the vote in 1996 but just 60 percent in 2006. Besigye garnered 35 percent of the vote in 2006 and hopes to raise that number significantly this time around. However, election observers have found that most Ugandans expect some form of electoral tampering to keep the president in office and Besigye has likewise expressed little confidence in the vote’s credibility. “The election is being organized by an electoral commission, which is entirely serving at the pleasure of candidate Museveni," Besigye said. "He has the power to, at anytime, sack any or all the members of the commission that are managing this election without reference to anybody.” To counteract potential tampering, Besigye’s Inter-Party Coalition plans to deploy its hundreds of thousands of monitors to tally the votes independently and announce its results shortly after the polls. In other words, expect both sides to claim victory in the aftermath of the vote and for a protracted battle to rage on to determine a winner, with the incumbent manipulating the results just enough to remain in power…………
- Were I a theater buff, this story might upset me. If I had seen “The Lion King,” “Billy Elliott” or “Chicago” on Broadway or if I went to the opera regularly, perhaps it would offend me that an opera titled "Anna Nicole" is now playing at the Royal Opera House in London. As the title implies, the opera is about the life of noted Playboy/porn star Anna Nicole Smith, who made her reputation on having a huge rack and little else to offer. Smith died tragically in 2007 and left behind a child whose father had to be determined by a court battle along with, apparently, a burning need for an opera to delve into the fascinating wonderland that was her life. In the opera, Anna Nicole is played by Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, whose lengthy resume includes parts in Tosca, Verdi’s Otello, and Strauss’ La Damnation de Faust. That depth of experience and success has done little to sway the opinion of Larry Birkhead, father of Smith’s daughter, who has done his best to gravy train her untimely passing into his own 15 minutes of fame. Of course, that fame begins to dwindle at some point and much like a junkie in need of another fix, the only solution is to continue creating more and more ridiculous controversies to keep people talking about you. That means Birkhead needs to…..yup, threaten legal action over the opera. He’s following the script, claiming that the producers of the opera never contacted he or Smith’s estate, nor did they offer him an advance screening. They did offer him a perfect opening to further cash in on Smith’s name and reputation to secure himself some more undeserved publicity, but he doesn’t seem to appreciate that gesture and instead mocked the opera as "a sleazy tabloid." He hasn’t settled on his next move, but vowed that the estate would weigh its legal options.
He ended his odd rant by threatening, "If [the producers] are not careful, they'll get more than diet pills in the mail." I have no idea what that has to do with the opera even if it is a topic linked to Smith’s death, but asking for a fitting metaphor from Birkhead is like asking a blindfolded giraffe to help you tie your shoelaces……….
- Take cover! Take cover! Okay, so there’s no actual danger in three solar flares hitting the Earth Thursday and Friday, but everyone needs to indulge their inner alarmist from time to time. Scientists have predicted the occurrence, which may trigger a bigger show of the Aurora Borealis, also known as the northern lights. There is an outside chance the solar flares will impact the Earth's magnetic field to some degree, depending on the direction of the magnetic field accompanying them, so that’s something to hope for. Thirdly, scientists say the flares have increased the density and velocity of the solar wind and led some airlines to reroute some of their so-called great circle flights, which normally go over the North Pole. The flares hitting Earth Thursday and Friday were given off by the sun on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with the largest, an X2.2 flare, released on Tuesday. As any outer space enthusiast could guess, all of the solar flares were released from Sunspot 1158, which has expanded rapidly in recent days. More flares are expected from the sunspot, but the timing of their release is obviously hard to predict. Tuesday's X2.2 flare is bum-rushing the Earth faster than the smaller flares released earlier, and the mass it ejected is expected to catch up with that from the earlier flares soon. The actual speed of that mass isn’t extremely high, measured at about 497 miles a second, which means it should reach Earth in about two days’ time. Its progress will be monitored by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager, which has been orbiting the Earth since 2003. Those most impacted by the flares will likely be anyone utilizing shortwave radio high frequency communications, which are most used by the military. Such outages have already been reported in southern China, which is probably looking for a way to oppress the rights of the solar flares once they get to Earth. Satellites and flight paths will also be somewhat impacted by the flares, as plasma in the flares creates different charge levels in different parts of a satellite it hits, leading to what effectively is a short-circuit that might fry some of the electronics in the satellites. Lastly, the flares could also affect global positioning systems, meaning you might have to actually navigate your own driving route for a few minutes if GPS systems are disrupted. Should any of the above scare you, a) you’re much too alarmist for your own good and b) feel free to hunker down in your already-built bomb shelter in your backyard and return to the world above ground once the weekend is over……….
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