Is It Friday Yet?

Welcome one and all to another edition of The Friday Follies, a free-for-all of oddities and news items from around the globe and maybe even your back yard.

And today, we launch off with--

1) Early Sea Plane Being Resurrected: HAMMONDSPORT, N.Y Something straight out of a PBS special here! Waaayyy back when, after the Wright Bros. blazed the trail for aviation as we know it today. they had an arch-rival in Glenn Curtiss who went on to rack up about 500 patents himself. Mr Curtiss was most noted for the invention of the seaplane and eventually the flying boat. And now, decades later, a group of people have recreated the first flying boat from the original specs and on 9/15, plan to fly over Keuka Lake during Saturday afternoon's fifth annual seaplane festival, Will the twin-engined beast fly? Remains to be seen, more of the story HERE

2) LOUDER Proof There's Little Virgin Territory On The 'Net: It's true, just about ANYTHING can be found on the Internet these days, and yes, there's even a dedicated and very unique community of enthusiasts out there whose object of adoration is, AIR RAID SIRENS! Yep, there are actually folks who not only like them, but collect and restore them to full working order. For a fascinating peek into this little sub-culture, check out http://www.airraidsirens.com/ and for a somewhat broader scope that includes ALL things Civil Defense, The Civil Defense Museum at http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/

3) Fighting Gravity: There is mucho research being done on the subject of gravity repulson and maybe one day having anti-gravity engines in air or spacecraft. Well, one individual has got a patent for sale for an anti-gravity generator type device if there are any interested parties out there, click HERE

4) Einstein Was Right Again: The great scientist was once heard to remark that a problem cannot be fixed by the same consciousness that created it. And in the case of George Dubbaya and his whole Iraq fiasco, that has never proven more true. Now that the hype is over about the Gen. Patraeus Iraq Report, it's obvious that' nothing's changed and these dolts STILL insist that it's working. How could it be working when very few of the benchmarks set for Iraq to stand on its own have been met (and nobody over there has really been trying too hard, in a manner similar to a teenager who won't grow up when it's time to leave the nest). Of course, the ever underachieving Bush Gang retorts by saying something to the effect that the benchmarks were set too high (yeah, right). It's obvious that Bush will NEVER be able to extricate himself or us from this inexcusable fiasco. That'll have to be left for his successor unfortunately, just as Nixon inherited the whole Vietnam mess from LBJ to clean up.

In today's AJC, Al Dale, an Air Force veteran summed up very well the whole situation with Bush, that instead of having the courage to admit that he was wrong and make amends for his wrong decisions, 'ol George, the stupid coward that he is, just digs his heels in and refuses to be honest, his opinion piece HERE

And what's more, what right do we or anyone have to expect that we can impose or force democracy on a country or society that doesn't even want it to begin with. Stupid and a waste of time if you ask me. FWIW, what we should'v done was stay in Afghanistan and got the job done COMPLETELY, namely ANNIHILATE the Taliban, nail Bin Laden and then, I STILL believe we should've declared all-out war on Saudi Arabia for their complicity in 9/11. Of course, the whole Washington gang completely lacks the courage or wisdom to do so.

5) You Haven't Lived Until--#369: William Shatner, possibly THE MOST unique song stylist of the latter half of the 20th Century! Just after the original Star Trek series ended, Shaner collaborate with arranger Don Ralke to produce "The Transformed Man" a HILARIOUSLY overblown melange of Shakespeare recitations, over-the-top cartoonish orchestrations and BIZARRE renditions of then contemporary pop songs like "Mr Tambourine Man" or "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds with good 'ol Bill hamming it up like a junkie in need of a fix. It was meant to be aserious artistic statement, but wound up being a comedy classic!

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