A package of heat absorbing glass arrived, which I will use for observing the solar eclipse on Sunday, May 20. For those interested, (more…)

The Deseret News reports on two LDS missionaries who are dealing with brain injuries they suffered when vehicles hit them while they were standing on sidewalks. These were separate incidents, one in Sao Paulo, and the other in Toronto. I predict that in the interests of health and safety, future missionaries will be required to wear helmets, not only while on bikes, but whenever they are outside.

To mark the beginnings of Project Gemini in 1962, the Atlantic has up a collection of 41 beautiful photos. (link) Rendevous, EVA, a beautiful, capable capsule with ejection seats, and men in sunglasses to command and pilot it.

The size and proportions of a Gemini atop a Titan rocket seem ideal to me. I’m reminded of a reconnaissance ‘copter pilot who described his craft as a sports car compared to truck-like attack ‘copters.

Perhaps you noticed the waxing crescent in the evening sky and thought, “Less than two orbits to go!” And perhaps you have given some thought to the eyewear you will favor for observing the annular solar eclipse on the afternoon of Sunday, May 20.

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“Monuments used to be about making a singular statement for people to interpret. They could be simple, or even abstract. Now they’re about hitting people over the head with the obvious while ticking off boxes for different interest groups. It’s a mentality that leaves you with 56 columns around the WWII memorial rather than 50 (lest ye forget Guam!)” (link)

Tremendously cool opening sentence:

“When the crew of the Virginia scallop trawler Cinmar hauled a mastodon tusk onto the deck in 1970, another oddity dropped out of the net: a dark, tapered stone blade, nearly eight inches long and still sharp.”

(From the Washington Post article, “Radical theory of first Americans places Stone Age Europeans in Delmarva 20,000 years ago,” which I was guided to by Marginal Revolution. By the way, what has happened to paragraphs in newspaper writing? That opening sentence is also the opening paragraph. The first ten paragraphs are composed of twelve sentences total.)

So, someone performed religious ordinances in Mormon temples on behalf of Mohandas K. Gandhi. “In a statement from Nevada, USA, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed said on Wednesday it was appalling to note that Gandhi had been reportedly baptized by proxy by LDS. ‘It is insensitive and hurtful to the feelings of about one billion Hindus spread worldwide,’ he said.” (link)

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So, a New York Times columnist, Charles M. Blow, twittered:

“Let me just tell you this Mitt ‘Muddle Mouth’: I’m a single parent and my kids are *amazing*! Stick that in your magic underwear.”

I think I get where Mr. Blow was coming from. His words were in response to Romney saying:

“When you have 40 percent of kids being born out of wedlock, and among certain ethnic groups the vast majority being born out of wedlock, you ask yourself, how are we going to have a society in the future? Because these kids are raised in poverty in many cases, they’re in abusive settings. The likelihood of them being able to finish high school or college drops dramatically in single-family homes. And we haven’t been willing to talk about this.”

Romney called attention to men like Mr. Blow fathering illegitimate children, with the idea that it’s a bad thing. Hence Mr. Blow’s attention drawn to what’s girding Romney’s loins and lashing out as best he may.

Before looking up any other words published by Mr. Blow, I’m 98% certain he has advocated any-sex marriage. As I wrote last week:

“Entwined with our various social pathologies is the noxious phrase, ‘A family is a group of people who love each other.’ Maybe there’s a mother and father married to each other. Or maybe they aren’t married. Maybe the father(s) live somewhere else and love their children from afar. Or maybe Dad is out of the picture altogether, but Mom is there loving her children and they her. Unless she’s not; maybe the kids live with their grandparents. Whatever. It’s all good. Just so long as there is someone who loves someone. That’s what a family is.”

[UPDATE]: In an interview with Brian Lamb, Mr. Blow said that his children where born to his ex-wife, from whom he divorced a couple years after the youngest’ births. If Mr. Blow or anyone on his behalf felt that my erroneous assumption that he had fathered illegitimate children was an insulting misconstrual of Mr. Blow’s tweet, it is heartening that you feel that way.

[‘NOTHER UPDATE]: Mr. Blow has since tweeted a straight-up apology: “Btw, the comment I made about Mormonism during Wed.’s debate was inappropriate, and I regret it. I’m willing to admit that with no caveats.”

Yesterday, my state’s legislature tried twice to pass any-sex marriage in the lower house and they’ll be at it again at noon today. (more…)

Two headlines from the morning’s news:

“Highlights of Obama’s $3.8 trillion spending plan for 2013” [$12,000 per man, woman or child in America]

“10 of top 15 richest counties are in D.C. suburbs” [Median household incomes ranging from $119,540 to $87,007 compared to the $49,445 national median]

I’ve experienced three earthquakes, one while living in Los Angeles, and the other two in Maryland. I also once watched a nuclear explosion sway the family Christmas tree.

Manufacturers tell us that manufacturing is the heartbeat of America, and small business owners say that small business is. It may surprise you to learn that the National Active and Retired Federal Employee Association has other thoughts on the matter. (link) You and I can rest assured that the true heartbeat of America is readers and writers of Junior Ganymede, or it would be if any of us had a heart.

In the mood for a doughnut, I stepped in a bakery this morning, and when the clerk rang up my two sour cream doughnuts, the kind that used to be buttermilk and not quite so sweet, I decided to pick up a Washington Post as well. $2.20 changed to $3.26. Surprised, I looked at the front page, and sure enough, in the corner where it used to say 75¢, it now says $1. Answering my question when that happened, the clerk said since Monday.

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So, Rick Santorum would like to triple the Child Tax Credit (WSJ), or in other words, he feels that a family with three children should have their federal income tax cut by $6,000. (more…)