I think the founding fathers would be very disappointed in what has become of the American government and its leaders; we now have a corrupt empire that largely ignores its own constitution and tramples on individuals' liberties. The founding fathers would like Ron Paul, however. Congressman Paul consistently votes no on issues that are unconstitutional. If elected Ron Paul will end our wars, close our hundreds of military bases across the globe and end our unsustainable, financially irresponsible empire. Ron Paul has more support from US troops than all other presidential candidates combined! Dr. Paul is critical of government corruption and believes in protecting whistleblowers. As a congressman, Paul does not participate in the congressional pension, has never voted to raise congressional pay and as President he would draw a salary of just $39,336, which is the median salary of the American worker. Paul believes the War on Drugs is not working, is a waste of money, and violates citizen's personal freedoms. Congressman Paul has never voted for : raising taxes, an unbalanced budget, a federal restriction on gun ownership or an increase in the power of the executive branch. Paul is the only presidential candidate proposing a viable balanced budget. He voted against : the Patriot Act, the TARP bailouts, regulating the Internet and the Iraq war. Search YouTube for " Ron Paul predicts " to see how Paul has predicted many of our current major problems and crises years or decades before they happened. Please do not waste your vote on the status-quo; elect Ron Paul for US President in 2012. - David & Joan Hall

Best Launch Day Ever 4-30-2012 ~ Blog #445 (David) Yesterday we had the best rocket launch day ever! The target/goal of the TARC Nationals is to get two eggs to 800' within 43 to 47 seconds. Our altitudes yesterday were: 797, 806, a fluke of 828, 809, 809 and 796. Two of the flights landed on pavement and broke eggs; we'll be launching at nationals on a softer field so I think we'll be OK in that area. We had two or three flights that would have been penalized a bit for time. If our boys get these kind of altitude results in two weeks at nationals... Well, the worst two flights from today might even get them in the top 10. The average of our best five out of the six flights today would have won at nationals last year. There's a lot that can go wrong and there's a lot of luck involved, but we are not quite the long shots we were when we first qualified. The Saint Vincent Saint Mary's Rocket Teams were also flying at the site today; many of the photos below are of their teams, rockets and flights. The shots with the white rocket are of the IHM "team" (only one member made it today). The shots below were taken with my newly acquired antique "garage-sale" 135mm f2.8 prime manual focus lens. Exposures were at f4 and f5.6, ranging from 1/2000 to 1/8000 at ISO 500 Blue Heron Nests On Bath Road near the Cuyahoga River are threes with dozens of Great Blue Heron nests; Dr. Seuss would be inspired by these: Tallmadge Dagorhir For years, maybe even a decade, I've driven by a group of guys who gather at Howe Road Park on Sundays to battle with foam swords and shields. What I'd seen was always at 35mph from 100 yards. I've always been too busy to stop, watch, take a closer look and talk to them. Yesterday I did and I was very impressed. Dagorhir is a cross between fencing and Lord of the Rings. The guys talked about positions and techniques much like fencers. The fighting was very athletic; they were swinging, blocking, dodging, running and often tumbling to the ground. I saw them at the end of the day after they had been doing this for hours and they were still enthusiastic. They challenge each other and tap swords to begin. A match is won with two body strikes. A struck limb can no longer be used and they drop to their knees if struck in the leg. They also fight en mass, a dozen on one side against a dozen on the other. The most impressive thing, however, is how much fun they appeared to be having; laughing and smiling were ever present. They were very friendly and happy to answer all of my questions. If this sounds like fun to you, I had the impression they were always recruiting.