...some level of politics/bs is to be expected on a fairly large scale amidst any academic community...

27.01.1908 - 27.09.2006

Dan C. Turrentine Dan C. Turrentine, who retired as manager of the Wine Advisory Board at age 60 to start his own wine brokerage business, died Wednesday at his home in San Rafael. He was 98 years old. Turrentine is remembered in the California wine business for founding Turrentine Brokerage, which is located in Novato and employs 15 people including his son Bill and his grandson, Matt. Turrentine is also remembered for innovative promotions at the Wine Advisory Board, including six winemaker cookbooks which sold over a million copies. Prior to running the Wine Advisory Board, Turrentine joined the staff of the Wine Institute where he became assistant manager. He obtained rail rate reductions on wine and collaborated with the U.C. Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology to start an industry-wide program of certified vines that has provided generations of wine grape growers with superior plant materials. Turrentine was born in New York City. His mother died when he was six years and he was sent to live with relatives in New Orleans. He helped them run a boarding house and eventually worked his way through Tulane University. A fascinating year working as a tutor for the two sons of Robert Scripts, proprietor of the Scripps Howard Newspaper chain, helped him to launch a career as a newspaper reporter. His first newspaper job was for the El Paso Herald-Post but he was determined to make his way to San Francisco, the only city that he thought was comparable to New Orleans. He finally snagged a spot with the San Francisco News and later with the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the Chronicle to join the Wine Institute in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, he took a leave of absence and joined the U.S. Navel Reserve. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence as an administrative officer with Bombing Squadron 22. One week before the Independence was torpedoed, he was transferred with his squadron to the Island of Munda in order to participate in the attack on Rabaul, the hub of Japanese air power in the South Pacific. As U.S. forces tightened the noose around Rabaul, his air group was transferred first to the small section of Bougainville heroically captured and defended by U.S. Marines, and later to Green Island. He received a bronze star for service in this campaign. Eventually he was ordered stateside for a short break at the Naval Air Station, Seattle, where he met and married Barbara Ewart, now his widow, living in San Rafael. He is also survived by two sons, Dennis Turrentine of San Rafael and Bill Turrentine of Fairfax, and by five grandsons, Matt (and his wife Erin), Donal (and his wife Emma), Peter, Joseph and John. He was a member of the Unitarian Fellowship of Marin and for 33 years a member of the San Rafael Elk's Lodge. There will be a Memorial Mass at St. Rita Catholic Church in Fairfax on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 11:00 AM. There will be a Celebration of His Life on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 3:00 PM at the Unitarian Fellowship of Marin, 240 Channing Way, San Rafael. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Hospice of Marin Foundation, 17 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Larkspur, CA 94939 or to Homeward Bound of Marin, 199 Greenfield Avenue, 2nd Floor, San Rafael, CA 94901-2622.

Published in the Marin Independent Journal on 9/29/2006.

Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. The dangers of pre- or post-natal exposure to this complex mixture of carcinogens, developmental toxins and neurotoxins have never been studied.

THE WHOLE WORLD IS FRIGGIN CRAZY AND WE WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY! WE LOVE IT!

I have long known that one of these days I would log on to internet and find out that Acidman was no longer with us.

Alas, that was today.

God Bless You Rob, Rest in Peace.

We will miss you.

Thermoacoustic refrigeration is a new technology which provides cooling without the need for refrigerants such as chloroflurocarbons. The basic mechanism is very simple and efficient. A loudspeaker creates sound in a hollow tube which is filled with an ordinary gas. The initial project developed a working model of an acoustic refrigerator. A prototype was made from 2 feet of PVC tubing and a hifi loudspeaker, which develops a cooling of 180 F when using air and being driven with 1.5 watts of acoustic power. This project also studied the effects of the design and location of the thermoacoustic stack and the relative efficacy of different gases. Eliminating the need to recycle CFC gases in refrigeration units would also eliminate any incidental releases of coolant gases. CFC's have been linked to ozone destruction.

"But my baby doesn't like sleeping on his back. Can't I let him sleep on his tummy?"

U.S. House passes Internet gambling ban

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. House has overwhelmingly backed a bill to ban most forms of Internet gambling and require banks to block payments to offshore Web sites...

...Goodlatte said on the House floor U.S. gamblers were spending over $6 billion a year on the untaxed sites.

On Wednesday, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoting from a Pentagon report, announced that since 2003, over 500 weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. According to Santorum, these sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles prove that "weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq." With news this important, one would expect wide-spread coverage, right? Wrong. The so-called main stream media is silent on this discovery, instead painting their own view of Iraq.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.

-- Samuul Johnson

I have a friend, who for the purposes of this story, I shall call Neal.

When Neal was, is, has always been and will always be a troublemaker.

So at a ripe young age, his mother and step-father shipped him off to a military boarding school to 'straighten him out.'

When he got there, it was the usual experience. Rebel boys flaunting the rules, hiding from the officers and calling the other cadets names.

There were more rules than Neal cared to follow, but sometimes the punishments were enough to deter even him from breaking them... or from gettting caught.

The boys lived in barracks, eight to a room. There were no toilets in the rooms, just a sink.

In order to use the restroom at night -- since there were no restrooms in the barracks buildings -- they had to get in full dress, from starched hat and collar to polished buttons and shoes. Then they had to march down the rows of barracks buildings to the guardhouse. If they met one of the night guards (of which there were PLENTY) they had to salute and probably do some kind of drill, or push-ups, or something.

Of course, you could always sneak out in your skivvies and home you didn't get caught, but if you did, they'd be drilling you till the morning light.

So... as I said before, there were no toilets in the rooms.

Just a sink.

And one time, Neal said, he happened to be in another boys' barracks room.

And, glancing over at the sink, he saw an eggbeater.

...the whole Catholic concept of subsidarity is that both economic and politics should be done on a human scale; it's not only about small businesses but also about small government, that we want the de-volution of power away from big central government back to regional government; we want laws that do not encroach upon the rights of the family...

[W]ithin the very secretive and bizzarre society of the terrorist community, the US Military has allies. We have people at the TOP. People who knew where Zarqawi was, and could pinpoint his location. The armor of Islam as terror is cracking. That is the salient point. Taste that. Taste the flavor of it, roll it around your tongue like a fine wine. Even within the terrorist organizations themselves, Terrorism is beginning to crumble. Relish this moment.

"I see the morning light,

but not because I'm an early riser;

'cause ah didn't go bed last night"

-- Bob Dylan, Walkin' down the Line