BOSTON - 2

Monday evening the plan was to meet the lovely Blocked and her handsome husband some place for dinner, but wouldn't you know Spirit Airlines called and said they were going to deliver Robb's bag "sometime" during the day.  So we came up with an alternate plan.  Robb would meet them at the Greek Corner Restaurant, they would get take-out and we would have dinner in the apartment.  So that's what we did.  They got two take-out sampler dinners; one meat and one vegetarian.  Other than the stuffed grape leaves and the hummus, I had no idea what we were eating, but it was super delicious.  Robb stopped at the liquor store and got a bottle of wine, but had to go back to get another.  That too, though it was a name I had not known before, was quite good.  All in all, it was an excellent evening and we really enjoyed getting together with Blocked and her hubby again.  They are very delightful people.  It's too bad we live so far apart (did I mention they live in England?).  Robb would like us to go to London and see them there, but I'm not sure I can do that.  We'll see how it turns out. Oh, it was after midnight before the guy from Spirit arrived with Robb's bag!

Tuesday, Robb got a virus on his laptop.  It was something called System Care.  I tried to run the anti-virus program, but the SC wouldn't let me load it.  I tried to get on the internet, but it wouldn't let me do that either.  So I got on my laptop to see what kind of information I could find about getting rid of it.  I found a few sites that addressed the issue and checked one.  They provided a phone number, so I called.  That was my first mistake.  The guy at Advanced Tech said they could clean the laptop for only $199!  I don't know what I was thinking, but I agreed!  Mistake number 2.  They accessed Robb's laptop remotely and began doing whatever it is they do.  Well, it took forever and several hours later it still wasn't done.  It was around this time I started thinking maybe they were part of the scam.  I went back onto my laptop and checked.  That's when I saw something that I should have thought of in the first place: simply shut down the laptop, wait a few minutes, turn it on again, hit F8 and get on using Safe Mode, then run System Restore.  Why I didn't think of it at first, I have no idea.  But that's what I did and Robb's laptop was back to normal within a few minutes.  Then I decided to call Advanced Tech to get my money back.  I didn't really believe I had a snowball's chance, but figured what did I have to lose?  Surprisingly, they gave me no hassle at all.  So Robb's laptop is working again and I saved $200!  For dinner, I had discovered a Japanese Restaurant on Massachusetts Avenue and wanted to go there because I LOVE their ramen noodle soup!  Sadly, they closed at 19h00!  I couldn't believe a restaurant would close that early, but it seemed most of the restaurants along the avenue were already closed.  So we returned to the apartment where we ended up eating some of the Chinese food we had brought home Sunday night.  It was a bit tastier this time.

Wednesday evening, we called a taxi and went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts because Robb wanted to see their Impressionist section..  Entrance to the museum is rather expensive, so just getting there and getting in cost us $75.  But it was worth it because they had one of the largest Monet collections I've ever seen anywhere.  The bonus for me was that I was able to get a wheelchair and didn't have to walk around the whole place.  It is a large museum.  Since it was almost 20h00, we decided to have dinner at the museum.  They have two restaurants and two snack cafes.  We dined in the Bravo restaurant (scroll down, click on "Bravo" - the red-haired guy in the bottom photo was our waiter).  Robb had salmon and I had the Red Snapper.  I drank Sauvignon Blanc.  Robb had a wine recommended by our waiter (Loimer Lois Grüner Veltliner 2011), who was very knowledgeable about the food and the wine (he normally works behind the bar). Robb loved the wine.  For dessert, we both had Mocha Crême Caramel.  The dinner was not too expensive and everything was excellent.  If you're ever in the Boston MFA at dinnertime, we highly recommend it.

Thursday = RAIN!!!!

Dumb Law of the Week: In Minnesota, it is illegal to tease skunks.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

BOSTON - JULY 2013

We are in Boston again. We left Fort Lauderdale on Spirit Airlines around 09h45 and got into Boston arround 12h30. My bag was the very last one to come out. Robb's bag never arrived. When he checked with the baggage attendant, they told him his bag was still in Fort Lauderdale. Then they made up some odd excuse about us arriving too late at the check-in, but we were there at least an hour ahead of time. So they're trying to make him come back to the Logan Airport to retrieve his bag...if and when it shows up. He called today but now they say they don't know where it is. Out first dinner in Boston was at Qingdao Garden, a Chinese restaurant. The food was plentiful, but rather bland.

I got my laptop to the point where everything worked except a couple of letters on the far left of the keyboard. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get it to work. I finally had to take it to the shop where they charged me twice as much as the first guy estimated.

German scientists develop smart pen that detects spelling errors

  

MIT Whiz Wants to Turn Your Skin Into a Computer Interface

  

A man’s penis was bitten by a snake hiding in a toilet

Sound waves levitate and mix floating drops of liquid

Dumb Law of the Week: In Michigan, under State law, dentists are officially classified as "mechanics."

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Gonna Fly

This time next week, we will have been in Boston for two days. Looking forward to seeing Blocked and her husband again.

A rabbit dubbed "Frankenstein" has what looks like a series of horns growing out of its head

Humans May Evolve To Grow An Endless Supply Of Teeth

Solar system has a tail shaped like a four-leaf clover

Space-Time Loops May Explain Black Holes

Starwatch: What's the dark matter?

Dumb Law of the Week: In Massachusetts, it is illegal to wear a goatee without a license.

À la prochaine, mes amis

Ruth's Laptop

Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House because Robb has been talking about going there for years. It's just around the corner from us but we've never been. We rarely eat steak. Robb started with Mushrooms Stuffed with Crabmeat, they were large and probably would have been a whole meal for me. I had the Grilled Scallops, there were two (count ém...2) grilled scallops on a small plate with absolutely nothing else. Which seems to be the way they serve things in this well-known, expensive restaurant. We both decided on the filet mignon. The filet comes in two sizes, 11 ounce and 8 ounce. We opted for the 8 ounce. They too, came on a small plate with nothing else. They don't seem to understand presentation at Ruth's Chris. For dessert, I had Crème Brûlée and Robb had a chocolate drink with some kind of whiskey. The Crème Brûlée was passable, but not great by a long shot. Robb wants to go back, but I don't care if we never return.

I'm very close to fixing my laptop. I just need to figure out one more step and I'll be able to do it!

Tiny Electric Current Makes Others Look Better

  

The science of silk

Why are testicles kept in a vulnerable dangling sac?

Test Drive: The 2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid

Volkswagen XL1, wheeling a 262-mpg orb

  

Dumb Law of the Week: In Pawnee, Indiana: Any white citizen has the right to seize any Indian property for 25 cents.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Tour de Fool

Le Tour de France is currently in progress. In the US (sadly) you can watch the eight hour race squeezed into three hours from 20h00 to 23h00 on NBCSN. Of course, since it is US television, during those three hours, you get an hour and a half of race and an hour and a half of commercials. If I didn't like the race so much, I wouldn't even bother watching. I first watched in France several years ago and became a fan. But on European TV they have this great way of showing the commercials at the very beginning and the end of the show. You're not inundated with them throughout the entire broadcast. The preponderance of commercials is the main reason I almost never watch American TV. It's so damned annoying! Five minutes of race, five minutes of commercials, ad infinitum!!!

 So I broke my laptop! I have an Acer Aspire laptop with a 17.3 screen. That seems like a big screen...right? But it's really about the same size as a 15-inch screen. They just stretched the thing to make it 17.3. Oh well, to get back to my main thought...the letter "N" is broken. I tried and tried to get it to sit back in place but it just won't stay. So I went to CompUSA. The guy there said no problem, they can fix it for about $50. I agreed and went home waiting for him to call. After a month of not hearing from him, I started checking the internet. Without much trouble, I found a place that sold new keyboards for $15, so I ordered one. I also found a video showing how to take out the old keyboard and put in the new one. A piece of cake! Any fool can do that! Any fool except this fool. First, it was nowhere as easy to remove the old keyboard as they made it look in the video. Second, when trying to remove the cable, I broke the part that keeps the cable in place. Bottom line...I have to take it someplace to have it done and it will probably cost more than the $50 the guy at CompUSA estimated!

Virtual reality: Live your dreams in real time

Mouse cloned from drop of blood 

13-Year-Old Designs Super-Efficient Solar Array Based on the Fibonacci Sequence

Man Diagnosed 'Comatose' For 23 Years Was Actually Conscious All Along

Math Cheating Features Money Game Features 10 Mental Math Tricks That Will Make You Wildly Popular At Parties 

Dumb Law of the Week: In Florida, In Florida, it is illegal to tie an elephant to a parking meter, unless the parking fee is paid just as for a vehicle.

 À la prochaine, mes amis.

Oxygen

I purchased a portable oxygen concentrating machine because I have reached a point at which I can barely walk a hundred feet without feeling exhausted.  I first bought a Inogen One G3, because it advertised itself as the smallest.  Not only is it not smallest, it is also very noisy and pretty heavy.  I emailed the company and told them I wanted to return it.   They suggested sending me a different model which would be a lot quieter, the G2.  It was a lot quieter, but it also was a lot heavier.  I will not be that person you see pulling the machine around behind him because it's too heavy to carry.  So I sent back both the G2 and the G3.  I then found, on the internet of course, a unit calledAirSep Focus.  It weighs about half of the G3 and is almost half as small.  It is a little more noisy than I would like, but I'll put up with a little more noise to have something that is more easily carried.  The first real test will be when we go to Boston in July.  I'm so hoping it works as advertised, because that would mean we can go to Europe again.

Will new tectonic fault system kill the Atlantic?

  

How Silicon Valley Perfected Ice Cream

Every Year The Earth Grows 40,000 Tons Heavier

FYI: Could A 3-D Movie Improve Your Vision?

New signs of language surface in mystery Voynich text

  

Dumb Law of the Week: In Denver, it is illegal to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Late For Dinner

Saturday we had dinner at Candela. I had the Grouper with veggies and a Gazpacho Sauce, while Robb had the Red Snapper with Shrimp. 

Monday we had dinner at Dapur because they gave me a $15 coupon for my birthday. We started with the Shrimp Martini and followed that with the Crispy Duck. You may have noticed we have the duck almost every time we go to Dapur. We do that because it's very good and there are only a couple of places in Fort Lauderdale where we can get it. When we were seated, the waiter informed us that the kitchen would be closing in about two minutes. Even so, they only rushed us a little and it was basically our fault for waiting so late to go out.

Scientists Use New Engineered Virus to Restore Sight

Scientists Have Found the Ancient Secret of Indestructible Concrete

  

Nail-generating tissue also regrows fingertips

  

Scientists unveil plans for 19-mile-long particle smasher

  

New Kind of Dark Matter Could Form 'Dark Atoms'

Dumb Law of the Week: In California: It is illegal to shoot any kind of game from a moving vehicle, unless the target is a whale.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Thai Spice

Dinner at Thai Spice because this is my birth-month and they offered a free(?) entrée (with a $40 purchase). We did not get the FREE entrée because they only offered five and we didn't care for any of them. But we both had the Chillien Sea Bass. with (according to the menu) coconut cream sauce, which turned out to be a curry sauce. It was excellent. For dessert, I had the White Chocolate Cheesecake and I don't remember what Robb might have had (it was almost a week ago). I don't think we've ever been disappointed at Thai Spice although they are following what seems to be a trend in South Florida...every place is becoming a restaurant/lounge. I guess that sits well with the under thirty crowd, but I prefer quieter surroundings when I have dinner.

Carbon emissions helping to make Earth greener

Spanish town posts dog mess back to offending hound owners

  

Bolivian villagers bury man alive in grave of woman he allegedly raped and murdered

13-year-old 162 IQ

Check out the fish with human teeth

  

Dumb Law of the Week: In Arkansas: It is legal for a man to beat his wife, but no more than once a month.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Bradley Manning

Is anyone following the Bradley Manning fiasco? In case you don't know, Bradley Manning is a 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst. He shared a lot of so-called "classified" material with Wikileaks and is now, after being held with no charges for three years, on trial for "aiding the enemy", among other ridiculous charges. 

One of the most damaging things he shared was One of the most damaging things he shared was a classified video of a United States Apache helicopter firing on civilians in New Baghdad in 2007. The video, available at www.collateralmurder.com, shows Americans shooting and killing 11 individuals who do not return fire. Two of those killed were Reuters’ employees, including 22 year old Reuters’ photojournalist Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, 40 year old Saeed Chmagh. 

The video includes an audio recording of the internal commentary by the American soldiers before, during and after the shooting. The soldiers repeatedly request and are granted permission to open fire, encourage one another and joke about the dead and dying civilians.

A total of 11 adults were killed. Two children, passengers in a van that arrived on the scene after the first bout of gunfire had ceased, were seriously injured when the Apache helicopter opened fire on their van.

In 2007, Reuters called for an investigation into the attack. In response, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad stated: “There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force.”

Eating Yogurt Does Weird Things To Your Brain

Imaging Breakthrough: See Atomic Bonds Before and After Molecular Reaction

  

Chemist Hopes 'Artificial Leaf' Can Power Civilization Using Photosynthesis

  

Planck reveals an almost perfect Universe

Dumb Law of the Week: In Wisconsin: It is illegal to kiss on a train.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Brain Spaghetti

Video: UCLA live-tweets man playing guitar during brain surgery

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the huge number of people who post on Facebook and Twitter who can't spell, or use the wrong word? I'm not taking about typos of which we're all guilty at some time or other. How often have you seen someone use 'there' instead of 'they're', or 'your' instead of 'you're'? Another favorite is the use of 'were' when they mean 'where'. My all-time favorite was the guy who held up a sign calling us (gays) 'morons', but he misspelled it!

Dinner at home. If you think pasta is only good with spaghetti sauce, or meat sauce, you haven't tried Bob's Pasta. Yum yum, miam miam.

Earth's tides are shoving the moon away faster

Italy Orders Trials of Unproven Therapy

  

 3-D Printed Bioplastic Windpipe Saved A Baby's Life

  

Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don’t Exist at the Same Time

New Study Tries, Fails to Show Marijuana Use Is Linked to Crime

Dumb Law of the Week: In Washington: It is mandatory for a motorist with criminal intentions to stop at the city limits and telephone the chief of police as he is entering the town.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

The Way We Were

Dinner at Dapur on Saturday. We started with the Shrimp Martini, Tiger shrimp wrapped in rice paper with a pineapple-peach chutney. Very good! Our main course, was the usual Crispy Duck which was excellent as always.

It is becoming a chore to keep this thing going. When I first started on Open Diary, there were a lot of people that I read and posts on which I left comments, and who, for the most part, read and commented on my diary. But most of them are now gone. A couple died, but most have just disappeared into the internet ether-world. In the past six months, I haven't gotten as many comments as I used to get on a daily basis. For a couple weeks in a row I got absolutely no comments and only one of two people even bothered to post anything. I suppose I'll keep it going (though sporadically) for my own amusement and a way to check back and see how we were getting through the days.

Man Dead For 40 Minutes Brought Back To Life With New CPR Technique

Scientists Create First Cloned Human Embryo

  

The Week In Numbers

  

Teen’s invention could charge cellphone in 20 seconds

  

Our Creator Is A Cosmic Computer Programmer

Dumb Law of the Week: In Lebanon, Virginia, it is illegal to kick your wife out of bed.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Conspiracy

The other day after viewing a video on You Tube, I was given the option of about a dozen or so other videos. One of those happened to be the video of Bush LYING about seeing the first plane hit the WTC tower on 9/11. This, of course, lead me to watch other videos about 9/11 and seemingly logical comments by experts in various fields of architecture and building stress. It still disturbs me to this day that the American people have bought into the government's obvious campaign to make it seem as though we had actually been attacked by a group of Saudis on a suicide mission. You may recall, that most of the so-called suicide people were later seen alive and well in Morocco!  Supposedly, they were American Airline planes that had been hi-jacked, but if you look at the videos, you'll see they were NOT American Airline jets and there were actually no markings on them at all.  Then, if you check out the so-called plane flying into the Pentagon, you see there WAS NO PLANE.  The most obvious reason for the attack was the $300 Billion in gold bars in storage under the buildings of which little was recovered!  View the accusatory videos for yourself and think about it objectively. I'm curious to know what you decide.

See with your own eyes

Only Aired Once About PENTAGON !!!

9/11 Incontrovertible Proof the Government is Lying

MIT Engineer Disputes 911 Theory of the WTC Collapse

   

Missing 9/11 Planes

911 Clues EVERYONE MISSED

   

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Moon Rip

Got a strange urge to be ripped off? Try this: For Sale: Acre Lots on Moon With Earth View, $19.99. Want to own a little piece of heaven? It's yours, starting at $19.99 an acre--on the moon. If you prefer, you can buy property on Venus or Mercury. Now considering they don't own the moon, or any part of it, that's about as blatant a ripoff as one can get!  If you want to be ripped even further, you can pay to name a star.  Of course, the star won't be given the name you choose, but hey, what do you want for a couple hundred dollars?

Saturday, Robb invited a long-time friend for lunch. We went to the Alibi (it used to be called Georgie's Alibi, but the owner sold it and allowed the new owner to use Alibi, but not Georgie's, although everyone still calls it Georgie's) where we attempted to sit on the patio. The music was so loud we had to shout at each other to be heard, so we moved inside. It was somewhat better, but the longer we were there, the louder it got. The waiter found it immensely funny that we are all named Robert (Robb's friend is named Roberta). Georgie's has very good snack foods, although we have gone there for dinner a few times. I had the Coconut Shrimp, Robb had the Veggie Burger, and Roberta had something that for the life of me I cannot remember.

Warming Causes Plants To Release Gases That May Mitigate Global Warming

  

‘Time Crystals’ Could Upend Physicists’ Theory of Time

Donald Trump Caterpillar

  

Particle Accelerator Will Examine The Color Of Dinosaur Skin

  

Million-Neuron Artificial Brain Works In Real Time

  

Dumb Law of the Week: In Lebanon, Virginia, it is illegal to kick your wife out of bed.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Apartment Shingles

We managed to find a nice apartment in Boston for about a third of what we would have paid for the hotel room. It's still about the same as we would pay for a month in Paris. I never realized how expensive it is to travel in the US.

About a year and a half ago, I announced that I had been attacked by a bout of Shingles. It is still going strong. It's not painful (most of the time), but it itches like crazy, especially at night when I'm trying to get to sleep. I heard from one guy who told me his had lasted for two years. I think I may beat his record, because one thing that exacerbates Shingles, is anything that compromises the immune system. Steroids is one thing that does that and I am currently using two medicines containing steroids. I say currently, but it will most likely be for many years to come.

Consciousness After Death: Strange Tales From the Frontiers of Resuscitation Medicine

Teen Genius Develops Cancer Test

  

Hyundai Unveils Flying Electric Car for Congested Cities

SpaceShipTwo goes supersonic on first powered flight

  

Toddler Receives Synthetic Trachea

Dumb Law of the Week: In Lebanon, Virginia, it is illegal to kick your wife out of bed.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Give Peace A Chance

So now we've had the Boston Bombing, Newtown, Columbine, Aurora (and god only knows how many others) and in spite of all those, we still have no idea what it's like to live in Iraq or Afghanistan day to day. Just going out to buy groceries can mean you'll end up dead or maimed! How can anyone of good conscience justify these ridiculous, unnecessary "wars"? The US government needs to wake up and realize that using the Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy is NOT the way to fight the so-called terrorists. They NEED to realize that by using the military in this way, they are only encouraging others to join the "terrorists"!

Cell phone spotted in silent film from 1928

Super-powered battery breakthrough claimed by US team

Galaxy at the Edge of the Universe Really Likes Making Stars

Repairing and Replacing Body Parts: What's Next

Combining Antibiotics May Backfire

Dumb Law of the Week: In Dyersburg, Tennessee, it is illegal for a woman to call a man for a date.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Boston Dinner

Blocked and her husband are going to be in Boston in July for a wedding, so we decided to go up for a week, 21 July to 28 July. I booked a flight on Spirit, an airline on which we've never before flown, so we don't know what to expect, but it's only a three-hour flight so it shouldn't be too bad. Robb made a reservation at the Courtyard by Marriott Boston Copley Square. It seems to be a nice place, but damn it is expensive. For what he is paying for a week in a room, we could have gotten a beautiful one bedroom apartment in Paris for a couple of months!

Dinner at Candela this week. We both had what was listed on the menu as Fish Fillet, which turned out to be Red Snapper on a bed of Cava Risotto. It was super good. For dessert, Robb had the Chocolate Tart and I had Flan. As usual, we drank cava.

Saturn's Rings Are Raining Water

  

New Striped Bat Species Looks Like a Tiny Flying Bulldog

Scientists Make Brains Transparent to Get a Better Look Inside

  

The Safest (and Cheapest) Cholesterol Treatment

Sounds can Help Strengthen Memory during Sleep

  

Dumb Law of the Week: In South Dakota, It is illegal for women to think about abortion on a Saturday or Sunday.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Bitcoin Wallet

So I am now the proud owner of a Bitcoin Wallet. Ah ha, I can hear you, "WTF is a Bitcoin Wallet?" Not so easy to explain, but....Bitcoins are a new, virtual currency that can be used to buy things or pay people for services instead of using dollars or euros, or what ever currency you normally would use for those transactions. The Bitcoin Wallet is a virtual bank account in which you keep your Bitcoins (if you can figure out where to get them) and it is the place from which you make and/or receive payments for goods or services. I'm not totally familiar with the whole thing yet because it's rather complicated and I have yet to find any place that accepts Bitcoins as payment, although I've read that there are a lot of them. Another thing I don't quite understand is how they can be valued like dollars or euros, but according to the latest information, a Bitcoin is worth about $172, and people are 'collecting' them. Some have even suggested that they may eventually do away with the actual physical currency that we now use. I have my doubts about that, but who knows? If you want more information, Google "Bitcoins" or check out the Bitcoin Wiki.

This Weird Crafty Fish Can Make Itself Invisible--And We Don't Know How

  

Here’s the Coolest Photo Yet of SpaceShipTwo in Flight

  

“Breathprints” Could Diagnose Disease

  

Sam Parnia – the man who could bring you back from the dead

  

Scientists Decode Dreams With Brain Scans

Dumb Law of the Week: In Oklahoma, it is illegal for people to make "ugly faces" at dogs and they may be fined and/or jailed.

À la prochaine, mes amis.

Menu Change

Since we had a discount coupon, we had dinner again at Dapur. The noise level was considerably lower than during the weekend. We both had the Coco Shrimp (How do they make the shrimp straight? I've never seen anything but curved shrimp till now.) And for our main course, we had the Crispy Duck. The waitress gave us each a coupon to use the next time we dine there, so I guess we will be returning.

Saturday evening, we ate at Sage. It used to be our favorite local French restaurant, but a lot of changes seem to have been made and we're not at all sure it is a French restaurant any longer. For openers, the sign in front that declares it a French/American restaurant no longer lights up the 'French' part. Okay, so I checked it out on Google, and they're still calling themselves French. There does however seem to be a new owner/chef. Also, previously, they would not take reservations unless you had a party of six or more. Now, they'll accept reservations for even just two people. One thing I discovered that I really like: there were two items on the menu that were similar but different. I ordered my meal prepared like the other and the waiter didn't even try to talk me out of it. It was delicious!

Think Spice: 8 Spices with Health Benefits

Will NASA Announce Plans to Snag an Asteroid and Fly It to Earth?

This Weird Green Rock Is From Mercury

How A Tool For Perfect Human Vision Grew From One Of NASA's Greatest Blunders

Spark of Genius 

Dumb Law of the Week: In Nebraska, it is illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license

À la prochaine, mes amis.