Bonnie and Kathy

and we are NOT at a casino - April 08

4th of July Trivia

There are 30 places nationwide with the word Liberty in their names. Liberty, MO has the highest population at 26,000.

Iowa has 4 place names, more than any other state:

Libertyville, New Liberty, North Liberty,and West Liberty

Aurora Australis

AURORA AUSTRALIS: Auroras are dancing over the South Pole. "Solar winds from a coronal hole reached us today, June 26th, at about 2:45 PM New Zealand Standard Time," reports J. Dana Hrubes, Science Leader of the Amundsen-Scott Station at the geographic South Pole.

AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights of June 25th? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE.

see www.spaceweather.com for more aurora pictures

Summer Vacation Pick

This is one of four man-made waterfalls in the waters surrounding NYC. Starting today through sometime this fall, these waterfalls will be on exhibition-lighted after dark. This one is taller than the Statue of Liberty, was designed by Olafur Eliasson for the Public Art Fund and is meant to bring in millions in tourism dollars. Green energy is used to power them. With the floods, tornadoes, etc. of 08 here in Iowa-I think we need some tourism dollars and with the Mini-crick(official spelling) so close to me... I wonder if I have to license my hot dog vendor cart? For artists' renditions of the other 3 NYC waterfalls (I guess no one wants to actually take a picture of them-maybe Omar can) visit this site:

http://publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/08/eliasson/eliasson-08.html

Meet Grace Beenken

The newest addition to the family is Grace Beenken born June 20th to Nathan Beenken. How many of us are there now?
Update: According to the list in the sidebar, Grace is #43.

I don't have any inside information but I think #44 is going to be male and have a black father...oh, wait a minute...that's President #44...

Undiscovered tribe is older than McCain

They are the amazing pictures that were beamed around the globe: a handful of warriors from an 'undiscovered tribe' in the rainforest on the Brazilian-Peruvian border brandishing bows and arrows at the aircraft that photographed them.
Or so the story was told and sold. But it has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe's existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that 'uncontacted' tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry.

I first saw this photo a couple of weeks ago...it's a fake...go figure...had I believed it in the first place I would have already posted it...

Update: the picture is not a hoax...this tribe exists:

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/080624-amazon-tribe.html

Looks like you've done a great job at letting everyone know
all the different areas on your blog. All we need now is more
" kin folks" to check it out. You know us Kells, we are such
over achievers that everyone is probably too busy to check it
out. Think my over achieving days are over .....

Navigating through this site

The green sidebar to the right has a few informative sections to it. The 'archive' allows you to click on a title and you will be brought to that posting without having to go through the entire deck of postings to find something that interests you. 'Labels'-almost every posting has been labeled so if you are only interested in looking at say 'family pictures', click on that label and those postings will show. 'Favorite websites' are just that and you can click on one of those to be led directly to that site.

The dark blue sidebar below the green one is also interactive but is mostly filled with 'gadgets' that are automatic feeds right to this site from other sources and I have just copied and pasted them. I keep changing and adding/removing. My favorites are the temperature readings from GC, FL, OH, and NJ. I have been monitoring these quite closely and am coming to the conclusion that Iowa is the hottest and coldest place in the lower 48. You can click on these to get forecasts. The NASA images, places to see, happened this day in history are also interactive and you can get more images, info if you like by clicking on them or parts of them. The Youtube gadget allows you to view the most viewed videos on Youtube and to search for other videos. The videos may take a moment to buffer and may be choppy until they are buffered. Finally, the 'newsreel' starts you with GC news (although I have GC, Iowa listed-the feed picks up news form other Grundys in the country so beware) and you can click on the other sources for CNN, Sports Illustrated, etc.

The footer or very last gadget are the clocks from around the world. I haven't perfected the size and spacing of this one yet.

Actual postings like this one can be commented on, may have links to other sites, or pictures that you can enlarged (left click) or copied (right click).

How many of you remember the Grundy Hotel ?

According to Grandma Kell - it was quite a place of action

back in the 30's and 40's.

Note: this picture is from Jan, 1980...I think it was torn down shortly afterward.

Future Map of North America

This is Gordon-Michael Scallion's future map of North America. After the pole shifts and other Earth changes, this is his prediction for the year 2012. Looks like you have about 3 years to enjoy those coastal time-shares...and looks like all that remains intact is Tornado Alley...

Solstice in Alaska

Midnight baseball tonight to celebrate the solstice in Fairbanks-if anyone wants to make the trip. Deb and I had the opportunity to be in the Arctic Circle on the solstice back in '94. It was the strangest thing to see the sun circle the Earth, just above the horizon the entire time we were there. My sleeping patterns have never been the same, nor has my intolerance to cold weather...I had two rented parkas on and was still shaking---the natives only had shirts on. We were on the coast in a little Eskimo village and not in Fairbanks where I wore shorts. Anyway, I found some incredible photos of the Alaskan solstice and Midnight baseball game but they have rights on them so thought I should just post the link:


http://www.alaskastock.com/resultsframe.asp?txtkeys1=solstice

Moon Illusion

MOON ILLUSION: It is often said that cameras do not experience the Moon Illusion. So why does the Moon look so large in this photo, taken last night at the 2500-year-old Temple of Poseidon at Sounio, Greece? From www.spaceweather.com Visit site to see more pictures of moon illusions.

Installing a husband-sent by Deb

Dear Tech support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf 4.1.Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate.


DEAR DESPERATE,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother- I n-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)Also do not attempt to reinstall Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,
Tech Support

Sam and Rhoda Kell

Nov 17, 1937

IQ test

This IQ test was sent to me via email from Deb. It is very quick as you only have 8 seconds to answer each question. I found it interesting


http://www.flashbynight.com/test/

then, after you take it, go to the home page of that site and play the game called 'Splodge'. I am currently addicted as it is a no-brainer.

Rutherford, NJ - player of the year.

The Green Megacity of Tomorrow

This little snip-it is from Popular Science and is really pretty neat. The Megacity has all kinds of neat little gadgits to save and produce energy. Worth your time to look at some of the inventions for future city use. For investors--you might want to look into some of these companies.

http://www.popsci.com/futurecity/home2.html

Bon Bon's first posting

Here are my grandchildren... What do you think of them???? Don't you think they look just like their
moms???

Still need a gift for dad?

A few of my favorite Father's Day gift ideas: animal head bicycle seat covers. Mothership cuff links, and political note holders from www.uncommongifts.com

Apocalypse Now: Floods, Tornadoes, Locusts

Weather of Biblical Proportions Sets Off Debate Among Theologians and Scientists
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMESJune 12, 2008

'abcnews';

In the beginning, God created heaven and Earth, and he saw that it was good. So begins the Book of Genesis, the dramatic opener of the Old Testament.

Most theologians and scientists do not believe that catastrophic weather means the end of the world is coming. But many scholars do think the world is in for some kind of disaster, be it meteorological, ecological or geopolitical.(AP Photos)
But things went downhill from there.
God's wrath seems at work these days, as the heavens and Earth have unleashed earthquakes in China, a cyclone in Burma, killer tornadoes and record floods across the U.S. and even a plague of locusts (cicadas) in New England.
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa today, floodwaters forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital after residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 100 city blocks were underwater.
"We're just kind of at God's mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it might be a good time to start," Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said this week as record floods hit the Midwest. "We're going to need a lot of prayers and people are going to need a lot of patience and understanding."
By the final Book of Revelation in the New Testament, the Earth suffers "Seven Plagues" -- from disease to "intense heat" and drought, then finally a shower of deadly hailstones.
And then comes the Apocalypse, the final judgment of man and destruction of the world by fire.
Biblical imagery is all over the news these days — even including a story last week of a New York baby being enwrapped by a snake in its crib, harking back to evil lurking in the Garden of Eden.

Wacky temperature reading?

I don't think so. I believe it is a disclaimer. I work for a company like this. We need these disclaimers to avoid litigation. This is the temperature of the coffee. No more law suits for drive-up spills, sorry, they warned you it was hot.

Ark building instructions

For the do-it-yourselfers who have not yet been evacuated:


Build An Ark
An online resource dedicated to Preparedness, Self-sufficiency and Sustainability. On these pages you’ll find articles and videos that will help teach you how to prepare ...
www.buildanark.net

Crop Circle

2008 Barbury Castle Pattern is Pi to 3.14159265358

This is the most recent crop circle, appearing in the U.K. on June 1st.

This winter, with all the snow, I wondered, "why aren't there ever any snow circles?" The aliens must only travel in the summer months.

Reminds me of a line from an old Star Trek episode, "Trelane, it is time to stop toying with the Earthlings."

Note from Floridians

we have received word from Lois and Stan:

We think this is a great idea...just need to learn how to do things on the site. Maybe Lori can help us...it would be neat to get updates on lots of the family that way. We aren't computer literate like these youngins!! HA,HA Love, Lois & Stan

would also be nice to have updates on the best casinos in the U.S.

Iowa women says, "Wee people responsible for flower garden damage."

The owner of the flower patch located at 103 E Ave., GC, informs me that it might be the 'wee people' damaging her precious Japanese poppies. "There is only this much of the poppy plant left," she reports, opening up her finger and thumb to about 2 inches which is, ironically, the probable height of said 'wee people." The Iowa woman was last seen heading to 'the store' to buy some 'Wee people be gone.' ?

update: may be a new 'mutant' breed of wee people-pesticides to blame

Near-Earth Asteroids on Monday and Friday

from: http://www.spaceweather.com/

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.
On June 8, 2008 there were 956 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Two June, 2008 Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid 2008 LB, June 9, 3.3 LD

Asteroid 2008 LG2, June 13, 9.2 LD

Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU.

In the last movie I watched where an asteroid was heading to the Earth, the President was black and the VP was a woman....just thought it was worth mentioning....

Thong bandits surrender

the latest from CNN crime files:

ARYADA, Colorado (AP) -- Police in a Colorado town say they've caught two "thong bandits" who used women's underwear to disguise themselves during a convenience store robbery.
Nineteen-year-old Joaquin Rico turned himself in Friday, two days after 24-year-old alleged accomplice Joseph R. Espinoza turned himself in.
A surveillance video released last week by police in Arvada, Colo., shows two unarmed men inside the convenience store. They stole an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes in the May 16 robbery.
One man wore a green thong and the other wore blue. Each thong barely covered the man's nose, mouth and chin and left the rest of his face exposed. One also wore a pink backpack in which he stuffed the stolen items

what a couple of butt heads!

Unexplained ground heat burns boy's feet

Bill Folsom
Colorado Springs Published 4 day(s) ago
There was no fire, but the ground was hot enough in a Colorado Springs park to burn through an eight year old boy’s shoes and cause at least second degree burns on his feet. The boy went the hospital. His Crocs style shoes that were left behind have big holes with burned edges.
Firefighters want to know what’s causing the ground to get so hot near Golden Hills Park in the Rockrimmon neighborhood. Battalion Chief, Kent Matthews says, "In my twenty-four years I haven't witnessed this kind of occurrence. So it's unique.”
After the boy was treated and sent to the hospital firefighters took surface readings that showed hard to believe temperatures. According to Chief Matthews, "The highest temperature we got at the surface of the soil with the sun shining on it was 800 degrees, which is pretty darn significant. Radiant heat from the sun will get it up around 150, 160 degrees, but not to that level."
Firefighters have taped off the area and are monitoring it until they can figure out what's causing the ground to get so hot. Tests by hazmat team members show there are no dangerous gases. Crews have cut a fire-line around the area to prevent the heat from potentially starting a wildfire.
Early assessments show the problem area is coal dust. Neighbors say the area has appeared blackened as long as they can remember. What has to be determined is if it was dumped here years ago or if there's something happening underground. Crews from the state geological are on the way to figure out an explanation.

All I want to know is if the animals have left the area. If so, I think the 'big one' is brewing.

Open posting invitation

I have changed something and now the four of you who have visited this sight can now not only make comments, you can also make the initial post. I'll try to explain how I am able to make a post and hopefully that will help you cause we need more family pictures and other pertinert articles like I have posted (?):

Right now, in the upper right hand corner it should say 'create blog' 'sign in'. I hit 'sign in' and am brought to a screen where I type my username(email address) and password in the upper right hand corner and then click on 'sign in'. Then I am brought to a screen where on the left there is a small green + and says 'new post'. When I click on that I am brought to a window where I am currently typing. There is a tool bar so you can change font, margins, spellcheck, add pictures, video, etc. You can even preview to see what your post will look like so you can change it and at any time. Right below the window there will be an orange box that says 'publish post'. You hit that when you are ready. Please try...

As other family members visit the site, I will also add them as 'contributors' so they can post also...as long as they don't try to take over.

If you are not able to post, I may simply have your email address typed in wrong.

Mothers: don't let your babies grow up to be body builders

This guy must have watched too many superhero cartoons...

And I'm worried about putting on a swim suit?

Can't he see below his chest to notice the hourglass legs?

And when my veins started to pop out like that, I had them removed.

If I saw this on a beach, I'd yell, "run for your lives!!!"

I wonder if his thighs chafe? And that flesh colored backpack?

What are people thinking?

Another incredible tornado video

This one is from the bank's ATM video camera. It is incredible to say the least. I can't believe that more people were not hurt or killed. I was there 4 days after the tornado went through. It looked more to me like a bomb had gone off-everything was blown up. Street signs were made of plywood 4 x 8s otherwise you had no idea where you were as absolutely no landmarks were left.



http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/19496234.html?video=YHI&t=a

Don't worry, be happy

I first visited this website years ago. It's got some neat things on it. It was designed, after typing in a small amount of info about yourself, to tell you when you were going to die. After rearranging my info many times (to see what I would have to do to live longer), I found that the simple answer was to be optimistic. I think I can handle that. Actually, your attitude matters more than if you are a smoker or not. You can also figure your BMI (body mass index) and has a very large catalog of how famous people died.

http://www.deathclock.com/

Note: figure your BMI first. If you are in the obese category, don't continue. Go to weightwatchers.com and return to the deathclock when your BMI is normal.

Tornado destroys Parkersburg bank

This is worth a look. It is the security video from the Iowa State Bank in Parkersburg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WIOqa8_Qs&feature=user

My favorite tornado story is the missing herd of cows: 1 of 250 was found.

Pringles can inventor buried in his own invention

There's only one thing I can say about this...

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- The man who designed the Pringles potato chip packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been buried in one of the iconic cans.

The man who designed the Pringles can had part of his cremated remains buried in one, his family says.

Fredric J. Baur, of Cincinnati, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice in Cincinnati, his family said. He was 89.
Baur's children said they honored his request to bury him in one of the cans by placing part of his cremated remains in a Pringles container in his grave in suburban Springfield Township.

...Please don't bury me in a pizza box!

Alien caught on tape

For those of you that missed Larry King Live this week on CNN, here is the link to view the full video of the alien caught on video tape. You will notice the 'high forehead' and 'low ears' that many of us Kells possess.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/06/02/lkl.alien.tape.cnn

So, if anyone ever calls you an alien, your response should be, "quite possibly."

Total Offspring

Can someone provide me with the number of total offspring of Sam and Rhoda. Those residing in FL/MI will only count as 1/2.

Experts

I think every blog has it's experts that it refers to when questions arise. I have already decided that Betty will be our advertising expert as she can sell anything. We still need experts in these areas:

Global Warming
Leisure Activities - Bonnie, Lisa
Spirituality
Gaming - Stan, Lois, Bonnie
Fashion
Economics
Politics
Oddities and Strange Events - Kathy
Medicine
Sports
Food - Bonnie
Travel

If you feel you qualify or know of someone in the family that would qualify as an expert in one of these fields (or any other fields) please let me know.

Don't forget the first episode of Ice Road Truckers season 3 starts a week from tonight.