RanTom Thoughts

This part of the wiki is for Tom's Rants and whatnot. Feel free to give feedback / comments on the talk pages.

Current RanTom Thought

Guess who's a winner of an R&D100 award for 2007? Argonne has now released their press release, so the embargo is lifted and I can now officially announce this. -- Tometheus (talk) 10:33, 8 August 2007 (CDT) Red Letter Day R&D 100 Award! OK, today's July 4th, a red-letter day on the calendar, but it's been a red-letter week for me this week. I've been stumbling around in a daze all week since I found out what I'm going to share today. This is huge! I mean, gigantic, enormous, so incredible terribly huge in my life that I've been scared to share it in case it wasn't true or I was dreaming. However, now I have a copy of the fax and it's finally starting to sink in on me that it's really happening. Now I can share it with everyone else. (Also I've been holding off due to something else that happened this week.. see below.) I am one of the winners of an R&D 100 award! more >> -- Tometheus (talk) 20:42, 4 July 2007 (CDT)

Recent RanTom Thoughts

Stump in Moraine Hills State Park. No sounds here, just visuals. Where did the cicadas go? Oh no! They must be plotting their final onslaught! Aural Gratification and other stories Let's talk about sex. No? OK, maybe not. How about Politics? Religion? Oh right, that's going to be in my review for The God Delusion. Fine, we'll talk about something boring like aural memory. Maybe I'll let people know what I've been up to lately as well. Today's RanTom Thought won't be so much of a rant or philosophical debate as just sharing something about myself. As such, it probably won't be interesting to most people :D You know the cliché: Guys are more visually oriented than women. However, just because it's a cliché doesn't mean it doesn't have some truth. I know this will be old news to a lot of guys. Consider this a primer for my female friends. Call it Tom's Manifesto on the Visual. Or not, it's up to you. I won't pressure you. more >> (Some mild adult content) -- Tometheus (talk) 23:11, 20 June 2007 (CDT)

They're swarming the planet by the BILLIONS! They've been burrowing unnoticed beneath our feet for YEARS! It's the Invasion of Brood XIII and they only have MATING on their minds. Can humanity survive the invasion?!? Coming soon to a webpage near you. Brood XIII: Bug-Eyed Nympho Invaders from the Center of the Earth! This morning was another one of those magical overcast days like I talked about last time. However, this time, the nymphs I'm seeing aren't mosquitoes, but cicadas. I've long been fascinated by cicadas. I first experienced an emergence in Oklahoma when I was a kid in first grade, (Brood IV in 1981). It's certainly an interesting survival mechanism they have evolved -- overwhelm your predators all at once and most of you will survive. Also, the absolute predictability of the emergence is astounding each time I experience it. In the past, I was impressed by the predictability of the year and month, now there's even a formula to predict the exact date. more >> -- Tometheus (talk) 11:21, 25 May 2007 (CDT)

Tiptoe through the tulips with me! Springaliciousness Winter has finally decided to concede to Spring. Today's Thought is not so much of a Rant as a Ramble. I'm just excited that Spring is here and everything's turning green, and I can take off my jacket, and the breasts are in bloom and... um... where was I? Green is an interesting color. There's something magical about when the woods start turning green. It's no wonder Spring is so important to so many of the (earth) magic traditions in the world. On an slightly overcast day, with everything coming alive around you, there is sort of a mystical feel and one can almost believe in fairies. more >> -- Tometheus (talk) 11:35, 2 May 2007 (CDT)

Global Warming Winter has decided that Spring was being presumptuous. There are some days when you step out your door and the wind striking ice crystals against your jacket sounds like Rice Crispies on speed. On days like that you really want to forgo the rest of the day and just turn around, go back inside, curl up next to the <insert heat source here> and just read a book. Today is one of those days. Now for the rant part. (And so it begins) I'm really tired of Hollywood over-pimping the whole Green Agenda. [edit: I'm specifically addressing Global Warming in this article, not the whole "Green Agenda". Perhaps some day in the future I'll comment on a couple of other issues.] more >> -- Tometheus (talk) 10:26, 11 April 2007 (CDT)

Ellen White on Swine This is for all my Adventist friends out there... Other people may not be interested in reading it, since it deals with Ellen White, which really has no meaning for people who never grew up in the Adventist church. [quote in extended version] So basically, this direct vision from GOD said that telling other people to abstain from pork was Satanic. Apparently when 1T was written, God didn't know what he was going to show EGW 5 years into the future... Specifically calling this an "Error in Diet". So, what is the test... that God will reveal the policy on swine to the entire church, not to two or three. So what changed the policy, creating the Adventist prohibition on pork? ONE person's vision! You may tell me "oh, but Ellen White was human, she makes mistakes", but remember, this is claimed to be a direct vision from God himself. Talk about someone on a power trip. When someone else comes up with an idea, it's evil, but when she comes up with it later, it's DIVINE LAW. more >> -- Tometheus (talk) 05:59, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Bahá'í House of Worship GRE, Great Food, Greeters, and Goodbyes I took my Physics GRE Subject Test yesterday. Reviewing classes you took over a decade ago is not a fun task, so I took a few weeks off of work to prepare. Last time I took the test I had just come out to Chicago, so I didn't have any of my textbooks, all I had was GRE Physics - The Best Test Preparation for the Graduate Record Examination Subject Test by REA. This time I bought a new copy of the book to see if they corrected the two mistakes I found last time. After the test, I discuss my adventures in Chicagoland on a CTA day pass, including such wonders as the Lucky Platter, and the Bahá'í House of Worship. more >> -- Tometheus (talk) 00:08, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Links to Recent RanTom Thoughts

20070704 Red Letter Day (R&D 100 award) 20070620 Aural Gratification and other stories (some adult content) 20070525 Bug-Eyed Nympho Invaders from the Center of the Earth! 20070502 Springaliciousness 20070411 Global Warming 20060225 Ellen White on swine 20051212 GRE, Great Food, Greeters, and Goodbyes

20051113 Of Weddings, Belly Dancers, and Joy 20050717 Van Cliburn Classicals! 20050330 Einstein and his relatives 20040923 Diploma Time! 20040820 That's MASTER Tometheus 20040818 Replace Hubble?

• See the listing in the Category for older rants
• More to be moved over from DiaryLand soon...