Al's Blog-o-Sphere

Did you feel it? Did you get just a little bit more done today? A few minutes ago, at 6:59:60 pm local time, an extra second was added to the calendar. That’s right, after second #59, there was #60, then #00. It was done then because it was midnight in Universal Coordinated Time, UTC. It’s called a Leap Second.

So why add a second? Who’s going to even notice? Probably not you or I, but people in science doing precise measurement, especially of celestial objects, needed it. Do you need to reset your clock? Not unless you’re really obsessed with accuracy. Continue Reading…

The efforts of Lockport’s City Fathers to pass a sign ordinance regulating what businesses can and can’t have for a sign reminds me of the Malvina Reynolds song Little Boxes:

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

[dewplayer:http://gritzmacher.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/malvina-reynolds-little-boxes.mp3]

While the song was about suburban architechture on the surface, the conformity this ordinance is attempting to impose fits just as well. Continue Reading…

The Hyundai job post reminded me of the article the Lockport Journal had on the weekend about the Delphi Bankruptcy Anniversary.

It was the typical Lockport paper puff-piece. Said nothing new, asked no hard questions and avoided the real issues here in Lockport. Of course they’re not the only media that falls into that trap. Continue Reading…

Apparently, down south. Continue Reading…