Last Commented News Blogs (3,095)

It's hard to believe Christmas is once again upon us. It's been a long rough year, so I'm welcoming it even more this year than I have any other time in recent years.

My top 5 Christmas movies are:


5. A Christmas Story (1983)

4. Gremlins (1984)

3. Scrooged (1988)

2. Home Alone (1990)

1. Christmas Vacation (1989)

Have any? Feel free to post yours!

Besties JoAnn MacQueen and Marlisa Mercer won a million dollars playing the lottery, and immediately decided to keep the good vibes rolling by giving heaps and heaps of it away to the community. Identifying several causes and charities in their hometown of Orillia, in the Canadian province of Alberta to give fat checks to, local news reports it making a huge difference.

First of all, MacQueen describes the moment that she scanned her ticket at the Lotto Max machine at her neighborhood Shoppers Drug Mart. There was no ring-a-ding-ding, indeed there were no sounds at all. The screen simply read $1,000,000,00 and a free play. She recalls being stunned, and that she began to shake; “it was pretty cool,” she remembers.

They donated varying amounts to places that MacQueen’s brother, who died recently due to alcoholism, might have accessed during his life, which included Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, the Orillia SPCA, and the Farley Foundation, an Ontario-based charity that helps low-income pet owners take care of their animals. They also donated to the Salvation Army, the Royal Canadian Legion poppy campaign in Orillia, Mariposa House Hospice, the Comfie Cat Shelter, and the Sharing Place Food Center, which helps the economically disadvantaged get access to nutrient dense fruits and vegetables.

“They are completely focused on how can they help to make this community a better place through this win,” Chris Peacock, executive director of the Sharing Place, told local news. “Not many people win a million bucks and have the core goal of spending it on others and improving this community." For the Comfie Cat Shelter, the $10,000 check they received was the fifth highest donation in this no-kill shelter’s history. “It covers our vet bill for October, and it gives us money for more spay and neuters,” said shelter manager and founder Barb MacLeod, who described it as “fantastic” and bringing her to tears.

Orillia Matters reports that the pair plan to split the remainder among their family and friends, as well as take care of some renovations.

Imagine that whapping you up side the face

Let's keep this BIG RED WAVE GOING!!!

I've always been fascinated with electronics and 2-way radio communication. Some of the geeky kids in electronics class were licensed radio operators as teenagers. My uncle got a license while he was in the NAVY and could send and receive messages on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!
The difficulty wasn't the rules and regulations, for me, it was the code. You need to comprehend 5 words per minute to pass the exam.

Before radio communication, there was the telegraph. A device where wires strung for thousands of miles could carry faint signals from station to station. A device called a key was tapped on and a speaker on the other end captured clicking sounds. Inventors around the world were beginning to use this device and inventor Samuel Morse devised an alphabetical system of varying spaced clicks. dit and dah is the easy way to describe the sounds. dits were short and dahs were long! This was knows as Morse Code.

Wireless radio communication, didn't have voice capability in the beginning. Radio receivers could only detect clicks and Morse Code was used to send and receive message over the air. It worked so well, that a watt of transmitting power could be heard half-way around the world.
Receivers became more elaborate and voice communication became possible. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) maintained that radio operators be proficient in Morse Code to get licensed.

My friends were using Citizens Band (CB) radio where the FCC allowed people to use low power 5 watt radios for voice communication and no testing was required for licensing. The CB radio was only good for a few miles. That lead to bigger antennas, more power and the ability to talk farther/further. It was a hobby I had for at least 10 years.

Not far from my home is a county park and in a fenced area is an antenna farm of many different sized antenna arrays. I rarely see any cars at the compound until one day last week, about 20 cars were out front. They were having a BBQ for an open house to attract new members.

I was curious and stopped in to ask a few questions.
It's been years since I talked on a 2-way radio and since then, the FCC (realizing new membership had fallen off) no longer required the operator to be proficient in Morse Code.

I still have some vintage ham radio gear. Two of the transceivers were fully restored by a technician 5 years ago. Do I want to do this?
Groan... I'm living in a condo and not allowed to mount an antenna on the roof.
All this to talk to a bunch of guys my age who discuss their radios and the money invested in this hobby.
My thought 5 years ago was to sell the gear I have and not bother with amateur radio.
Maybe I'm of the same mindset today.

KYIV, Ukraine — A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.

Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information, but said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting due to a "crisis situation."

Polish media reported that two people died Tuesday afternoon after a projectile struck an area where grain was drying in Przewodów, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Russia pounded Ukraine's energy facilities with its biggest barrage of missiles yet, striking targets from east to west and causing widespread blackouts. A defiant President Volodymr Zelenskyy shook his fist and declared: "We will survive everything."

Neighboring Moldova was also affected. It reported massive power outages after the strikes knocked out a key power line that supplies the small nation, an official said.

Zelenskyy said Russia fired at least 85 missiles, "most of them at our energy infrastructure," and shut down power in many cities.

"We're working, will restore everything. We will survive everything," the president vowed.

His energy minister said the attack was "the most massive" bombardment of power facilities in the nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion, striking both power generation and transmission systems.

I used to live about 5 miles from a US Coast Guard base at an airport in Miami that hosted a yearly air show. You could see the best of the best from vintage air ships to the Blue Angels who do precision stunts.
There was another yearly air show in Fort Lauderdale about 25 miles north of me and they would takeoff from the same Miami airport, head east (over my house) to the beach and north to Fort Lauderdale. At different times during the day, at least 20 aircraft would fly out and back from the same path.

My interest in attending air shows dropped off when a high percentage had accidents, usually with pilots and sometimes crashing into the spectators. That was enough for me. If I wanted to see one, I'd wait for a TV show about it.

I've got a vacation to Dayton, Ohio coming up next week and will probably visit the air museum... again. 80% I've seen before and the I-MAX 3D theater is the main attraction for me.

One of the model air fields is sponsoring a 'War Bird' scale model event this weekend... Some of my friends went and one guy actually gave a flight demonstration of his scale Huey Helicopter complete with authentic looking details down to the rivets and working doors, machine guns and blinking lights.

I usually don't hear about crashes on Air Shows, but one happened this weekend in Texas. I was baited by the cover story showing photo of several jets in formation. Well, it wasn't them. What did happen is a smaller aircraft crossed the path of a WWII bomber, clipped it's tail and both aircraft ended in a fiery crash.

Twitter link:


Original story:


Veterans Day Air Show footage of the crash:

Jay Leno had a bad accident with one of his cars while in his garage. There was some sort of fire from the gasoline that exploded. His left side of his face was burned. Jay Lena himself put out a brief statement saying he's okay.