Foy E. Lowe

My grandfather, Foy, passed away last night. He had Alzheimer's disease and died from the complications that go with it.

Pappaw was a Seabee in World War II in the Pacific. During all the time I was growing up, he never talked much about his military service. As his disease progressed and his memory got worse, he talked more about his time in the war. I think it's because those memories were embedded more permanently than other, less significant things. It was interesting to hear him tell his stories once he opened up.

He was also a great human being. He was one of the most compassionate people I have ever known and kept his negative opinions of people, if he had any, to himself. When conversations would turn to criticism of someone, his standard phrase was "It sure is a pretty day." He was very good at saving money, but would generously lend from his savings if someone needed financial help. Not as a free gift most of the time, but as a loan that would be paid back. He provided me and a handful of other young twenty-somethings a job when we were still learning how to be men. These jobs would sometimes include helping people with manual labor who could not do the work themselves. He was the kind of Christian man that inspires me to be a better Christian man.

I have no doubt that he was welcomed into heaven. Not because of the man he was, but because of the man Jesus was. And I have no doubt that a standing ovation took over God's throne room when he arrived.

Microlattice

I don't know what this stuff will be good for, but it's pretty cool. I'm sure at some point in my life, metallic microlattice will be all around me being productive in my life. But right now, it's just cool that they made the stuff.

Read more about it on c|net's web site.

Thanksgiving

My two favorite Thanksgiving movies of all time. Both are fun to watch and remind you what's important in life.

NASA want you!

NASA is looking for new recruits. Click that link to the left or the logo to the right and you can apply online to be one of NASA's future astronauts.

I trained with NASA back in my younger years, but only made it half-way through the training. That makes me an official half Astronaut. HA!!

Conspiracy Theorists Rejoice!

Check out this image from Google Maps. It in the Gobi Desert on the Chinese side of the China - Mongolia Border. Looks like some sort of military training site. Scan east and west. There are several large patterns there in the desert. Rumors are flying around the Interwebs of an Area 51 in China. This patter is about 1 mile N/S and 3/4 mile E/W.


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New learning tool

If you are responsible for helping to educate another human, this is the web site for you. Trust me, it's good stuff.

You may not become a doctor here, but you can find simple explanations of just about anything that someone might try to teach from Elementary school through SAT preparation.

Battery Barrier

The only thing slowing smartphone technology now is lack of battery technologies. The phone can get no smaller and no more powerful without requiring even more frequent recharges. Bad battery life on the iPhone 4s and the Motorola RAZR smartphones is what tops the news in that niche today.

He has my vote!

I don't know where Grant Stinchfield is running, but I want to move there just so I can vote for him. This is campaign gold.

Have you ever wanted to ...?

Microsoft's new video, Productivity Future Vision, shows what might seem to be a bold look at what technology will look like in the future. Practically every flat surface in the home is an active led screen that can show and store information. Communication happens seamlessly without the users even thinking about how it works. But don't start thinking that it's all just prototype gadgets that will likely never exist in your lifetime.

Remember the old "You Will." ad campaign from AT&T back in 1993 and 1994? They were pitching a lot of technology that did not yet exist, but now we use without ever giving it a second though. We even sometimes poke fun at people still struggling to use the same gadgets and technologies that looked futuristic less than twenty years ago.