Dakota Today

**So venture over to Cranium Creek and laugh or groan

Cranium Creek descends deep into the caverns of puns.  Laugh or groan, it is your choice:

Cranium Creek Blog and "Punilingus"

 Not much new in the way of news around here, but about 4pm this afternoon, I was driving the 1/4 mile from our farmhouse to the county highway when I heard a thump and a dark thing with 4 legs hanging down over the windshield for an instant. The old Mitsubishi Eclipse is relatively low and apparently a deer had jumped nearly cleanly right over the top of the car. No window or windshield breaks, dents, or scratches that I could find. Also no broken deer parts littering the gravel. Brome grass has grown up nearly as high as the car. Guess tomorrow will be a good day to try to mow along the road so a deer in the ditch might be seen and perhaps a deer might even see a car coming.
In the spirit of punilingus and Martha Stewart, "Near and deer" is not a very good thing

. ***Stay tuned even if your groan response to puns is far too close to a gag reflex-- Doug Wiken

**This and that..AP and Bloggers, Sen. Obama and good rumors

Well, it appears that AP is again on the warpath attacking bloggers who have the audacity to quote their stories and give links back to the source.  A site named Drudge RETORT (not Drudge REPORT) has gotten notice from AP in what appears to be another opening salvo.  I know some SD bloggers have also been hassled by AP in the past.  Some bloggers think all bloggers should give AP the obscurity they seem to want.

More on the story here at the Carpetbagger's blog:

Carpetbagger Blog on AP and Drudge RETORT copyright issues That is one issue. Here is another that makes a point in a rather humorous way: SLATE story on Rumors Obama should not correct And, an interesting comment found at Salon Table Talk in the White House Folder concerning the "inexperience" of Sen Obama:

Verbal Remedy - 08:40 am Pacific Time - Jun 19, 2008 - #3134 of 3149 I've just got to say this: Obama had no previous experience running for national office. He had no previous experience in widespread netroots fundraising and organizing. He had absolutely no experience running against the presumptive "inevitable" nominee with 100% national name recognition. No experience whatsoever in assembling a national security advisory board. Not one lick of experience putting together a rapid response team to fight smears. No experience addressing issues of race to a national audience, under fire from the MSM. You know what? All things considered, when you look at how all those things turned out, his lack of experience is working out a hell of a lot better than his inter- and intra-party rivals' combined hundred or so years in Washington, DC. http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?14@@.773d380a/3130

**Stay tuned even if the weather is strange and TV network "news" becomes more and more trash and hype--- Doug Wiken

**Architecture-- University Grotesque HodgePodge Style and Graffiti

First the graffiti.  I rant and rave about vandalism, but this bit of graffiti is just plain clever and
funny.  Not  sure of the source.  It was emailed to me with no references.

And, graffiti of an architectural kind on the University of South Dakota campus at Vermillion. The appearance may be an artifact of the alumni publication or the computer generated image. Whatever..the new student center looks like a dog's vomited breakfast.
Click on image for a larger view. Source the recent USD Alumni News. This looks like something from Grotesque HodgePodge School of Architecture... Toss together the plans for a confinement hoghouse add on a nursing home design, toss in an exposed stairway and something from the plans of a highschool gymnasium and hot lunch food service....mix in a large nonsense block of decorative brick and WOW!! Your perspective might be better and/or much different than mine, but sticking this building on the same campus with Old Main seems like architectural graffiti or vandalism

. **Stay tuned even if a blog is just a house of pixels blowing in the wind--- Doug Wiken

**McCain loves Hillary supporters. Where do GOP women go?

Apparently John McCain is chasing after the skirts of Democratic Hillary supporters hoping to persuade them to jump from a sunken ship to a sinking ship.  I would think McCain's current deep love for Hillary supporters might cause some concern in the hearts of all those GOP women less than thrilled by Sen. Clinton.

Let's hope the "Hell hath no fury like a women scorned." still works with Republican women being dumped by fickle lover of GOP ladies John McCain.

Politics not only makes strange bedfellows, it makes strange beds.

**Stay tuned even if you are a GOP lady with no delusions about where Dakota Today stands on women's choices--- Doug Wiken

**Son, Don't get your math and Physics from the Argus or, busted myth busters.

The ARGUS today April 25, 2008, printed a "Reader Rant" titled "Re:Shooting Bullets". The writer gets his science from cable TV Myth Busters. He says a bullet tired into the air and then coming down to hit somebody was proven not to have "enough force" to cause serious injury. The writer also notes that a bullet returns with the "same rate as any falling object (32 feet per second squared).

Those with a little knowledge can be dangerous. Of course some of us with a little more knowledge might be even more dangerous, but here is a little physics anyway.

Velocity is distance per unit of time. Acceleration is the change in the velocity. Force on an object can be determined by the equation F=MA, or Force equals mass times acceleration. This little bit of physics and math may be about all most people ever really need to know about physics of motion.

So, the writer has confused acceleration and velocity in his comment. The velocity of falling objects in a vacuum will accelerate or increase in velocity at around 32 feet per second squared above the earth. Objects with an initial speed or velocity in an upward direction with no continuing propulsive force such as a jet engine, will accelerate in a negative direction, ie down or decelerate in more common usage.

So, if a car is pushed off a cliff about 600 feet high, using another formula distance equals initial velocity plus 1/2 acceleration times time squared, etc the car would be traveling at about 450 feet per second when it landed if there were no air resistance. Air resistance sets a "terminal velocity" for falling objects depending on the mass, density and streamlining. The falling car would be moving about 300 miles per hour if there were no air resistance. Humans falling out of an airplane don't keep accelerating until the hit the ground. Apparently terminal velocity for falling humans is about 130mph. Here is a link with some more basic information:

Physics site with question on falling bodies

Falling bullets on the other hand are a totally different can of worms to mix metaphors or something like that, but lets not get into chemistry. I do not think I would want to be the test subject for shooting even a 22 caliber rifle perfectly straight up on a windless day. Here is a link with some information on the terminal velocity of bullets, mass, etc.
"Straight Dope on Falling Bullets"target="new"

Then there is "Grandpa" who answers at Grandpa on Firing gun into the air

And finally, there is Myth Busters itself, but revisiting the falling bullet issue
Myth Busters Revisit Falling Bullets issue

Do a Google search for "Terminal velocity of a falling bullet" or body or human and you will get a lot of interesting information that somebody at the ARGUS should have checked before posting the "RANT".

So, "Be careful out there" or beware David Letterman jokes about squirrels."

***Stay tuned even if your eyes glaze over at the mere sound of the word "physics" or you think of "physic" instead and want nothing to do with loose stool..let alone falling loose nuts--- Doug Wiken

**Dakota Today--Mountain man, Mountain goat

With the weather in South Dakota on a roller coaster of warm to frigid for the past weeks and months, I have delayed on getting a haircut and neglected shaving. We might say it is a winter hair situation. But, even the Jackrabbits are loosing their white winter hair, and I will have to get a new drivers license from the great state of South Dakota. My wife didn't think forcing viewers of the photo ID to decide if the image was a mountain man or a mountain goat was a really good idea. So, you can see the before and after image below.

Unfortunately, unlike the jack rabbit, my winter hair and summer hair stays the same conspicuous old geezer white. Looked like the barber was sweeping up flour. They did recognize me even if it had been months since I darkened their door however.

I do hope the temperatures don't drop precipitously.

***Stay tuned for something more important

More Hot Flash News on April 1, 2008

Google has a tradition of April Fool's Day jokes. Below is information on 2008 versions from Wikipedia.
Google officials were amazed at the results however. Check for that info and more following the quote below.

Gmail Custom Time feature hoax

Gmail's sign-in page announced a new feature, called Gmail Custom Time, that would allow its users to "pre-date" their messages and choose to have the message appear as "read" or "unread".

Around 11:00 p.m. EST March 31, 2008, on the newer and older version of Gmail, but not in the basic HTML version, in the upper right corner, next to Settings, a link appeared labeled, "New! Gmail Custom Time". The link led to a 404 error until April 1,[4] [5] when it led to the full Gmail Custom Time hoax page[2]. Clicking any of the three links at the bottom of the page brought the user to a page stating that Gmail Custom time was, in fact, their April Fool's day joke.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google's_hoaxes

http://snipurl.com/236qt

Google administrators were amazed to learn that of the first suckers for the new service included the following: Every member of the the US Congress, over 1000 executives of home financing systems, and over 2000 rapid responders in the Bush Administration.

Other interesting news passed on to me by a friend this morning includes the following:

McCain and Cheney Make Joint Announcement

At a press conference held today at the Foggy Bottoms Restuarant, GOP presidential candidate John McCain (known impolitely by some as "John McAncient", and Dick Cheney, known less affectionately as "Darth Vader" reporters got the following news.

John McCain today announced, "I am proud to say that Dick Cheney has volunteered to head my Vice Presidential Search Committee." McCain also indicated he was doing his best to make certain all voters realized his administration would not be anything like the Bush administration and his wars would not be anything like Bush wars. "After all", said McCain, "I was shot out of the sky by commies. And, that is the kind of experience that makes me qualified to be a president with a mind of my own."

**Stay tuned, somewhere in the world in a different time zone, there is another reality-- Doug Wiken

**Goodbye Argus Leader, Hello Argus Bagger

Intrepid reporters Ole and Lena of Ludefisk News (No connection to former Talon News or Richard Melon Scaiffe) have uncovered the ideal story for the first of April 2008. They discovered that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader no longer exists. After perhaps nearly a century, it is gone. Gannet executives said, "The new media reality is that Newspapers are actually bags for advertisements and reality just pushed us into the "Bagger Concept". This is not just a simple bag, but a bifurcated bag which allows two extra "pages" on the outside of the bag.

Ole and Lena included the until today secret new logo of the old ARGUS. Click on the image for a larger version if you don't have anything better to do today.

There is more important news today, but this popped right to the top of the list early this morning. New media is in the news. SDPB discussed blogs yesterday at noon. Perhaps some comments on that subject again here, but not on April 1, 2008.

**Stay tuned for news that doesn't break or brake or flash--- Doug Wiken

**Denise Ross, Blogger is a noted Fellow

Some news from South Dakota Blogland. First, in the "Come Blow Your Own Horn" category, Denise Ross links to this:
NWL Argus says Denise Ross a Lusk Fellow

She tells all at her blog:
NWL to Hoghouse Blog "Fellow" Story

So, another congratulations to Denise Ross. Apparently she is telling students at SDSU about new kinds of journalism or journalism trends. I might guess she may even mention blogs in South Dakota as sort of a followup to her column in the Mitchell Daily Republic. Not sure if she mentions the relative transient nature of the various forms of media. Plain old dead tree media can be around for decades. Broadcast TV is instantaneously here and gone..even if it can be copied to tape or DVD, etc. Newspaper web sites are mostly somewhere between in that they can have news there for a few hours or for years even if not accessible to all readers, etc. So, existing media can move from transient to less transient or more transient. Not sure if that is at all significant or even trend worthy, but seems moderately interesting to me.

I also wonder if younger readers such as college students think about this as they use FaceBook, blogs, etc themselves.

And, one of my old jokes made for a cartoon: Two American Indians in the bad old days are on a hilltop looking down on a settler's cabin. Smoke is rising up in puffs from burning newspapers. One of them sees the puffs of smoke and says, "Nothing new there. It's yesterday's news."

Other news in SD Blogland is not surprisingly, another blog. Don't know if it is good, bad or whatever, but may have some interesting perspectives:
New Window Link (NWL) to "Cranium Creek Blog by Mike"

**Stay tuned even if a real spring without many cold days and snow might be on the horizon and we could all find something to do outside-- Doug Wiken

**Marquess of Queensberry rules for blogging and website??

PP at the SDWC is having some fun at the expense of Steve Sibson. Pat Powers has bought sibbyonline.com and is auctioning it off for the benefit of charity for a few things that apparently appall the easily appalled Steve Sibson.

Those who care about truth, should buy the site for Sibby so he can spread more..well you know. Nothing like a little a little intramural Republican cat fight with hair-pulling and crotch-kneeing to liven up the blosphere.

Liberals owe it to themselves to help Sibby. We should help buy the site from PP so he can contribute and then give the site to Steve so he has another place to distribute his..er..ah truth.

More seriously, while PP is having fun with this, I don't really view it as an area of conflict we bloggers want to venture into. If there were Marquess of Queensberry rules for blogging and websites, buying or squatting on websites with names of "opponents" to poke them in the eye would probably be banned and penalized.

**Stay tuned when all else fails--- Doug Wiken