Stefaan Engels Finishes 365 Marathons in 365 Days

This is just amazing - not only did he run 365 marathons in 365 days - but the year before he completed 20 Ironman triathlons! I'd love to finish one! (See article below)

 

		Stefaan Engels Finishes 365 Marathons in 365 Days

 

Jon Stewart Unveils 'Reagan OS 911' Supercomputer: GOP's Most Promising 2012 Candidate (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart thinks the best GOP candidate for 2012 would be a computer of Ronald Reagan! This is funny here's my favorite part:

Reagan OS 911 truly is the GOP's best shot at a 2012 presidency.


...Or so it seemed. When Jon Stewart questioned him on his "birther" beliefs and pro-life stance, Reagan OS 911 found himself in some hot water. While he adamantly denied that Obama was a U.S. citizen, Stewart pointed out that Obama's parents were married in Hawaii on Feb. 2, 1961, and Obama was born on Aug. 4 of the same year, making his mother three months pregnant with him, in Hawaii, when she was married.


"Don't you see? Either Barack Obama's a U.S. citizen or fetuses don't count as people."

 

		Jon Stewart Unveils 'Reagan OS 911' Supercomputer: GOP's Most Promising 2012 Candidate (VIDEO)

 

Japanese Earthquake Quote

I heard one TV anchor talking about the Earthquake in Japan:

"The earthquake in Japan was an 8.9 on the scale - the famous San Francisco quake was a 7.9 - and the scale is exponential, actually more than exponential!"

I wish I could fathom what "more than exponential" would mean.... is that a new dimension of numbers?

Marathon Runner Eats Only McDonald's For 30 Days

Now this is my kind of training... (check out the article below)

 

		Marathon Runner Eats Only McDonald's For 30 Days
	A suburban Chicago man has a rather unusual routine to prepare for the Los Angeles Marathon: he has pledged to eat only McDonald's food for...

 

George Parks - UMass Band Director

Today I got the sad news that George Parks - the Band Director at the University of Massachusetts of Amherst, my former band director, passed away while traveling with the Band to their football game against Michigan this weekend. From the reports and knowing Mr. Parks - he likely had a long day on a bus, then a long day of rehearsal, and then the Band performed at a high school in Ohio where they were sleeping that evening, and then he was one of the 400 members of the band to try and get some sleep on the gym floor of a high school.

Music professor George N. Parks, who led the Minuteman Marching Band to national prominence during his 33-year career, died September 16 after suffering a heart attack following a performance at an Ohio high school.

Parks, 57, and the band were en route to Michigan to perform at Saturday's football game at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The buses carrying the band members are scheduled to arrive back on the UMass Amherst campus on Sunday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m. in front of the Fine Arts Center. The campus community and friends are encouraged to meet the buses and welcome back our students.

A nationally recognized band leader, Parks' charismatic persona inspired thousands of band members who devoted endless hours to drills, practices, road trips and public performances while also pursuing their academic studies.

“This is an extraordinary loss,” wrote Chancellor Robert Holub and James Staros in an email to the campus community. “George's devotion to excellence, his creativity and his passion for teaching inspired us all and shaped the lives of thousands of students during the three decades that he directed The Power and Class of New England. Truly, he represented the best of UMass.”

Under Parks' leadership, the band received the Louis C. Sudler Trophy, the nation's top marching band honor, from the John Philip Sousa Foundation in 1998. Last year, band was named one of the best in the country by the web site Bleacher Report.

If you are in the New England area you probably know about the legend of Mr. Parks. At age 23 he took over as director of the UMass band - a position he held for 33 years - and he built the band into a nationally recognized band. He insisted we become the Power and Class of New England and it was always true that he wanted us to be the best - not just in performing but the having class part. When a "rival" band came to our stadium - he was sue we were their biggest supporters and cheered them on. I think there is nothing more powerful than having a band feel so good about itself that they don't have to feel diminished by cheering on others performances as well. Be sure there were some "rival" bands who did not return the favor. I also loved how saturated the band was with traditions,some big and many small, but Mr. Parks was all about the details.

I could write forever about Mr. Parks and his leadership, his creativity, and his ability to inspire, and it may seem out of character for me since I have been told I have a "disdain for authority" (You're not the boss of me!) but Mr. Parks was a natural leader and in his short 57 years he put in 114 years of work.

Here is a video of Mr. Parks at a concert. What I appreciate about this video he is trying to teach the parents and families of incoming students the UMass cheer and he treats the audience like the does the band - if you don't give 110% - you do it again.


Here's a speech Mr.Parks gave at the opening of the new Marching Band Building on campus:


Here are some additional articles about Mr. Parks - the first from a friend who was in our class at UMass and writes for Boston.com.
http://www.boston.com/ae/specials/culturedesk/2010/09/thank_you_mr_parks_a_remembran.html

UMass official page:
http://umass.edu/umhome/parks/

Predicting the Path of a Hurricane

I love weather models, I also love when NOAA gives us a little too much info into their predictions because this just looks crazy!

I will miss Billy Mays

Of all the recent celebrity deaths (Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon) the only one that I immediately felt effected by was the sad news that Billy Mays has passed away this morning.

(CNN) -- Infomercial pitchman Billy Mays died at his Tampa, Florida, home Sunday morning, authorities told CNN.

The 50-year-old known for his shouting OxiClean ads was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. The Hillborough County medical examiner will perform an autopsy, Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan said.

Mays was on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Tampa on Saturday that had a hard landing at Tampa International Airport when the plane's front tire blew out. There were no reported injuries on Flight 1241, US Airways told CNN.

According to a local Tampa TV station, Mays said: "All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

The bearded Mays was a spokesman for Orange Glo and detergent OxiClean and appeared in commercials for other products.

He is featured on the reality TV show ''Pitchmen'' on the Discovery Channel, which follows pitch people in their jobs.

"It is with incredible sadness that we have to report that Billy Mays died in his sleep last night," said a statement from the Discovery Channel. "Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time of incredible loss."

I think Billy effected me because he was current, he was on the edge of becoming a pop culture icon, and he was a brilliant business man. I loved his show pitchmen and I loved how quirky Billy Mays was. I also think we are going to miss out on 10-20 more years of seeing Billy on TV shouting about new products.

Billy has sold Billions of dollars worth of products on TV and turned himself into a brand. He was recognizable, his products set a new bar for As Seen on TV products and he was very wealthy to boot. I think the lesson here is to do what you love because Billy sure did, and while he may not have had much time to enjoy his success, the reward for him was the journey to becoming the #1 Pitchman on TV.

I see this a little bit like the deferred life plan of retirement, if you wait until 55 or so to start doing what you really want to be doing, you never know how long or if you will actually get to do that.

Controversy: Why I am for Gay Marriage

WARNING: This blog is not only controversial but politically charged. If you can not read this and engage in an intellectual and open minded dialogue - please stop reading now.

I support gay marriage.

Now for a little bit of background - I was raised Catholic, but I am certainly very open to other religious ideas and fascinated that we study so much in school before choosing a profession but never study religions of the world before "choosing" one but that is a topic for another blog. Not that it should matter but I feel I should disclose that I am heterosexual and married. So I probably have nothing to gain by seeing gay marriage pass - but I can still point out where I see injustices or at a minimum narrow minded policy making.

I think on it's face if marriage carries legal privileges - then by default it should be open to any two consenting individuals. And I am saying this from an objective position as a legal matter. If you are going to give people rights and privileges if they get married - then in my opinion you can't discriminate against people who want these privileges.

Now let me debunk a few of the arguments against Gay Marriage from how I see it.

The bible says it's a sin
I'm sorry but I don't care. And I am saying this as someone who thinks the bible is obviously one of the most powerful books and thinks as a whole religion helps society deal with the unknown and gives us a reason to act as a civilized society rather than like animals killing each other for our own gains. First - I can't claim to have studied the Bible enough to know whether or not it really says being gay is a sin- I am guessing many can interpret the bible to meet their own needs - but let me talk about a bigger point. I don't think we should be creating laws for a country based on any specific religion or religious document.

I guess I still believe America was founded by the Pilgrims who were trying to escape religion persecution. Whether you believe that or not - I at least believe if you are the governing for ALL the people in America - then you need to take into account that not everyone's religions beliefs are based on this interpretation of the bible or the bible at all for that matter!

It also bothers me that when people say gay marriage is wrong because the bible says so - I am bothered by the clear lack of consistency in this thought. I'm not sure the bible says it's a sin to be gay - but I do know it says it's a sin to commit adultery and I don't think we have any laws in place against that. If we were being consistent shouldn't we say that anyone who has committed adultery should not be allowed to marry again because the bible says it's a no-no? Or if adultery was committed in a couple who decides to stay together - should we as a society strip them of all the legal benefits of marriage because of the sin?

Let me now also say that I don't believe that being gay is a sin. And I've spent a lot of time thinking about this because it's such a political hot topic. I guess it comes down to the fact that there are a lot of things I think are wacky about Catholicism including treating women as second class citizens if they wish to pursue a life serving god. I hope to see female priests in the Catholic mass in my life - it wasn't until I was in high school that they started to allow female alter servers. But I'm getting off topic.

The reason I don't think being gay is a sin is because on a broader non-organized religion view I just believe that if there is one great creator called God then God created some people to be gay (and I am sure there is a spectrum so that is how I rationalize bi-sexuality). I also believe that scientific evidence is pointing to this direction - but for now that's irrelevant because there are many gay people in the world - and that is how the world of today was made.

At the end of the day I can't see anything that comes from a place of love and respect as a sin. I think it may be easy for some to call it a sin if they are not familiar with a loving and caring gay couple - but if they got to know more and more people who I believe may just be born with a different sexual orientation then they can see that there is nothing to fear from gay marriage destabilizing a society - in fact it would only improve things because the more committed couples we have the better.

Children need a Mom and a Dad
I am not going to doubt that this is true. I think it would probably be best for the kids to have a mom and a dad - nuclear family - and a pet. But the problem I have with this argument is that it is fantasy - not everyone is going to have that chance. Either by divorce or death of a parent many children are raised without a mom and a dad. Also there are probably some really bad moms and really bad dads out there anyways (like the ones who video tape their toddlers smoking pot - but let's not go there). Now to take this further - using the fact that ideally children would have a good mom and a good dad as a justification to oppose gay marriage is similarly detached from reality - just because some people say kids are better off with a mom and a dad isn't going to stop gay couples from living their lives together and raise children. In this scenario I believe we as a society are better off recognizing the commitment to their families of gay couples. Just because America tries to punish gay couples by withholding legal privileges of marriage from them doesn't mean gay couples are going to disappear.

If there is no possibility for children then it shouldn't be called marriage
I'm getting long winded so I'll debunk this one quickly - if this were the case then there should be laws that if due to medical reasons a heterosexual couple couldn't naturally conceive a child - then they should not be allowed to marry to be consistent with this philosophy.

It devalues marriage
Really? Because I think there are a lot of disgraceful and repugnant things going on in heterosexual marriages. Abuse, infidelity, etc. We can't really think that this argument could hold up as a reason to oppose gay marriage.

The majority are opposed to gay marriage
News flash - the majority opposed interracial marriage decades ago. Where I think the court decisions of overturning a ban on gay marriage are right is because the majority should not be allowed to just vote to keep rights away from a minority, otherwise we could today pass a law that says Republicans can no longer vote based on majorities. Another news flash - the majority of Americans are uninformed or ignorant. Would you really trust the intelligence of the masses to decide what is fair and just? I think I could get a majority to agree to put an end to Woman's suffrage. Women have been sufffraging for too long! But then Americans would figure out that they just passed a law to end a women's right to vote. Besides it was ill-advised power majority who previously prevented women from voting.

In summary - I actually don't have any issues with people having strong religious beliefs about whether homosexuality is right or wrong. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. However your right to swing your fist stops at another's face - so to speak - and when it comes to legal matters and laws for an entire country - I'm sorry - no matter how big a majority a specific religion may have - it should not be the defacto law in my opinion. That is such a narrow view that because it's some groups strong religious belief that it should become public policy - well our public may not all agree with the same religions ideas and we all have to live together. By default for me laws should be fair to all - not the majority.

I also am encouraged to see that younger generations are more tolerant and open minded - and while recent polling puts the issue currently close to a 50-50 split - I believe it will only be a matter of time before gay marriage will be granted the same legal rights and no longer will we have second class citizens (at least not for gay Americans and at least not legally anyway). Hopefully in 50 years we'll look back at this issue the way we do at preventing women to vote and we'll think "what the heck was America thinking back then".

I hope this blog helps start a useful dialogue and shed some light as to why we can't just point to the bible or any religion for answers to national policy - at least in my opinion.

Quote of the Day - FAA style

Apparently the pilot of a small plane carrying 4 passengers died during flight - and a passenger had to be given instructions on how to land the plane.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/13/florida.plane.emergency/index.html

The quote of the day was this quote about the passenger who landed the plane:

"They walked him through flipping the switches, turning the knobs," Wallace said. The passenger landed the plane safely on his first try.

How many "trys" do you get? I didn't know you got more than one when trying to land an airplane.

Before I thought it went without saying - however you might want to inform your pilots of all of your flights that you expect them to land on the first time - every time!