Posts Made By: david elosser

Getting back on topic of "The Tape," there is speculation that Hillary has not officially conceeded the race yet because she believes the tape exists. What do you guys think?
David E

Mark Norby said:

...Iran's presidential wingnut...

Now now, let's call him by his real name: that's President Mymood Ahminnageehad.

David E

Lee,
1) Actually, there were obvious ailments. In fact, my wife, who is the horse race follower in the family, said before the race that Big Brown probably would not win because he 1) was recovered(?) from cracked hooves, and 2) the trainer took him off steroids.

2) It's called pari-mutuel betting, started in France in the late 1800's (you can do a web search for more details). Basically in this system the amount of payback is determined by the amount of money bet on the horse rather than his qualifications or previous record. Yes, you can win at betting this sport, but it is difficult, takes quite a bit of experience and talent and of course, a few pounds of good luck. It's not something you can do from the TV screen, you have to get to the track and look at the horses. You size all the horses up physically, paying attention to things like muscle tone. You look for fractiousness or fatigue. You check his record of course, but also the records of the horses he is running against, especially ones that have beat him before. You check the jocky's record, as well as who trained him. I could go on and on and you must be quick at it as you often have little time to make your decisions. And even with all this of course, anything can go wrong.

3) For major network TV it's this way. Seems to me with all sports really, as TV sports commentators have the mistaken impression that people tune in to watch them instead of the sport. Such vain-gloriousness often ruins the sport for many people. If you want to watch horse racing of all types, with excellent commentators, interviews, and stories, but without all the jibber-jabber of sports casters that think they are the greatest thing since Howard Cosell, try the TVG channel on Direct TV.

David E

Here is mom giving in to the juvenile's demands. She opened a sunflower seed and here is seen shoving it down the young one's throat.

Nice photo! Don't you have some wildfires there in California? We had a 40,000 acre wild fire in eastern NC that painted the Moon orange last week.

David E

When I find one of these in my house I call is a squash bug.

David E

There are a number of flipflops listed. But at least one makes sense:
"What about offshore drilling? During his last presidential run, McCain was against it. Now he’s for it, saying the states should decide if they want to drill for oil off the coast. This could cost him big time in states like California and Florida which are extremely environmentally conscious." (Quoted from the link you provided.)

He was against off-shore drilling years ago when oil was $30-40 a barrel. Now oil has skyrocketed $135 a barrel. Right or wrong, I think he has good reason to change his mind on this one issue. I disagree with the author when he says it could cost him in Florida. California maybe, but I doubt Florida. Florida's governor has also come out in support of OSD.

David E

Edward, I am not an expert but I'll try to answer your question as best as I can. As far as I know, all of the brands of ED66 telescopes are made my Long Perng of Taiwan, but I could be wrong. Every brand does seem to order them with minor differences. A while back, AT and Stellarvue sold the same telescope but SV had the collimatable lens cell. SV dropped this from their lineup and at some point AT began sell them with an adjustable lens cell. I don't think WO has an adjustable lens cell, but they do offer more than one type of lens, at least I think they are both still available. I seem to remember also that many people liked the rotating focuser better on the WO. I have the Stellarvue brand. These are really nice telescopes IMO and every brand has good reviews. They are a bit short on light grasp but their resolution is great for this size scope IMO. The views are tack sharp and the contrast is great. On bright targets like the Moon there is VERY little color in focus. On very bright stars like Vega, I can begin to see some color but nothing like your typical achromat.

I don't know anything much about imaging with the 66ED's but I've seen some really nice pics of various brands and they look good to me. I think, with the bit of chromatic abberation you will get with these scopes you might have to deal with some blooming around bright stars. I guess with any telescope you have to work with the strengths and weaknesses. Maybe someone with some imaging experience can answer that question better.

I don't know anything about the WO70ED, but it looks really close to the Orion 72mm Eon.

I know I didn't give you much but I hope this helps.

David E

I don't know. Chrysler was once bailed out. IIRC so was Harley-Davidson.

David E

I read that. Tom Daschle believes that the elderly, our parents and grandparents, should be given less medical treatments because they are not expected to live as long as younger people with the same ailments. This is the same guy that believes he is exempt from paying his federal taxes. This man is morally bankrupt.

"The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis."

David E