There’s no arguing that material science has had a huge affect on all forms of racing, especially IndyCar racing, but since the advent of carbon fiber, there’s not been much in the way of big paradigm-shifting leaps. That may change in the coming years. The current flavor of carbon fiber utilizes small fibers of graphite (ordinary pencil lead carbon) aligned, twisted, woven, and made r…

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What a trip! Tab and I left from the west side of Missouri on Thursday night right after Tab got off work and started to head east. We stopped in Effingham, IL for the night before continuing on to Winchester, IN to visit my sister and her family. Being back in Indiana, we had to [...]

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What a trip! Tab and I left from the west side of Missouri on Thursday night right after Tab got off work and started to head east. We stopped in Effingham, IL for the night before continuing on to Winchester, IN to visit my sister and her family. Being back in Indiana, we had to go to lunch at…

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In this, the year of blendification, there’s even more debate than before about what type of courses the IndyCar Series should run and which tracks should be on the schedule. Many who followed the Indy Racing League since 1996, are fans of ovals and typically are distainful of road courses because of the lack of passing. There are others who followed CART and Champ Car who enjoy road courses very much, but not so keen on ovals. To me its all about passing, but that doesn’t mean that there’s a cl…

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Reports of the demise of Ulysses have been slightly exaggerated. The bird still lives!! It must be admitted, that its living on a day-to-day basis. It was expected that by July 1st, the hydrazine fuel would have frozen in the lines, and the spacecraft would begin to tumble. To stave this [...]

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I finally made it back to a casino after a LONG hiatus. I think the last time I was in a casino was in May of 2007 when I went with my friend Phil to the Horseshoe casino in Council Bluffs. Well, Phil was back in town this past week, so we went [...]

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I don’t know why I even bother watching NASCAR. Seriously. I don’t do it often, primarily because I’m not keen on watching 40-year old technology stuffed into aerodynamic bricks. However, from time to time, I’ll watch a race sometimes out of genuine interest such as the Daytona 500, and their two road courses, and sometimes just because there’s not much else on.

Last night was a case of the latter. So with no other goo…

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Its was like watching someone turn off the life-support machines of an old friend. June 30th, 2008, was the last day of mission operations for the Ulysses spacecraft, after nearly 18 years of service. It also brings to an end the exploration of a region of our solar system that’s not likely to [...]

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