Don't forget the Heine Ride registration

Well - I'm wondering if I let the cat out of the bag when I mentioned the Columbus Space Port. I know many of the people that live in Columbus never make it to the Main Street area so it's been a pretty easy secret to keep. However - a few nights ago there was this "assumed" meteor the media was all a twitter about. I happened to be in town last Wednesday and took this photo BEFORE the alleged meteor and if you go down town today you will not see this giant . . . .  erection. 

Yea - need I say more??

Did I mention you can now get Columbus WI postcards at Walgreen's?  I had to fill out a form saying I was not a biological terrorist.  WHEW - I'm glad they have that form as I feel much safer now.

ANYWAY - knowing that Columbus will soon be getting visitors from other worlds I have been looking at the stars the last few weeks and there have been three very very brilliant stars almost in a straight vertical (about 45 degrees actually (  /  )  line when looking south that I have noticed.  Upon researching they are Spica,  Saturn and Regulas.  If you get a chance AFTER the upcoming storms check them out.

Regulas (the little king)  is the top star and one of the brightest stars in the sky.  It is 77 light years away so what you see is from 1933. The REALLY neat thing about Regulas is that it is 3.5 times larger then our sun and spins at a torrid speed of 709,000 miles per hour (compared to our suns 4,470 mph).  In fact it is spinning so fast that if it spun 16% faster it would tear itself apart.   It is so fast that gravity darkening occurs and it is shaped like an oval.

So with Regulas about to blow itself apart (or maybe has already) look lower and to the left.  This is  Saturn (yawn) and then even lower and more to the left is Spica.

Spica is a blue giant and is 260 light years away. So the light we see now happened about the same time Ben Franklin flew his kite into the air looking for electricity (it seems like just yesterday doesn't it). 

Spica is 1900 times more luminous than the Sun - sunglasses are mandatory on planets near Spica. Sadly Spica IS a supernova problem and could blow any day (or has already).  If Spica was OUR sun, earth would have to be 3 times FARTHER then Pluto to be livable.

All this has me thinking that I have to go buy Avatar today!  I RARELY buy DVDs . . like never,  but this is one I want to get.   Blu-ray of course. The thing about Blu Ray is not the video but the audio is SO much better on blu-ray.  It's the difference between a normal DVD and HD but in audio terms.
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I failed to mention yesterday that The Red Baron (Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen) was shot down yesterday  92 years ago.  He was 25 years old and oddly some guy with a rifle on the ground  shot at him and hit him in the chest!  He managed to land his plane as as solders climbed up to the plane Richthofen's last word was "kaputt". 


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NOTE - Heine Ride registration cut off is April 25 .That's not to say that somebody can't ride just because he/she is not registered.
 To find more information on the 2010 Heine Ride follow the link.   DJ and I are PLANNING on attending man we have just not been able to get out and ride!!  Still - PLANNING but . . . . . .

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Did see that Columbus was awarded $150,000 for LED Street Lights?  And remember when you were a kid and got the Weekly Reader?  Well Katie Barczykowski from Columbus wrote an editorial for the WR and it was published.  The category was on whether schools should have bake sales and her response was "If a majority of students at schools are overweight, then the schools should have other types of fund raisers instead"!  BRAVO!    Jamie Oliver would be proud!

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I think I'll start a campaign to get the Columbus Chamber of Commerce off their butts OR - dismantle them completely.  They are doing more harm then good for Columbus! Why to businesses give them money anyway!  Where does the money go???

Their website says "The official Web site of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce representing businesses in Columbus, Wisconsin, and Columbia, Dodge and Dane Counties. Visit our communities for shopping, tourism, dining, lodging, festivals, horse shows, Christopher Columbus Statue; Museum, fishing(??), family fun and economic development."

and it's been broken for THREE YEARS! 

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The Columbus Department of Public Works will be holding spring yard waste pickups on the following dates Thursday, April 29, Thursday, May 6, and Thursday, May 13, 2010.

Rod - OUT!