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Buck's Bytes

BUCK'S BYTES: Down with the sickness

I started this little blog out a few weeks ago expecting to have a great forum to put my views in the public discussion, mostly on tech and science stuff but dabbling anywhere. I have seen great bloggers across the world post entries almost every day, and I figured I would have no trouble getting three out per week.

Enter the crud.

I believe that's a term I learned from my mom, but I'm assuming she didn't completely make it up. Ever since last Tuesday, I have been a bag of sickness. Just when I thought I was getting all better, it comes back. Mere mortal antibiotics didn't kill it, so now on to a specialist to tell me why my head feels like a 128kbps mp3 file -- highly compressed. Told ya there would be tech stuff.

So what have I missed telling you about?

An electrical DeLorean!

Yes, the folks at DeLorean Motor Company are going to create an all-electric DeLorean in 2013. "Back to the Future" came out when I was about 7 years old, and I have wanted one of those since. I must thank my friend Blake for posting that on his blog.

But hold onto your flux capacitors. The DeLorean will set you back at least $90,000, according to ABC News. "Great Scott!" I know. I just finished paying off a car that cost a quarter of that. Maybe I should start buying those lottery tickets again.

No word yet on whether it will take 1.21 gigawatts to run.

"The Universe" isn't gone

I had grown worried over the past year that one of my favorite shows, History's "The Universe," had ended. It's a great nonfiction series detailing ins and outs of specific parts of Earth and space. It really turned me on to astronomy and has taught me a lot of things I didn't know.

Well thankfully History has continued the series for a sixth season. I only heard about it about five days before it aired last Tuesday, but at least I heard about it. The show has been moved to H2, which I believe is History trying to double up on the programming it offers. Hey, it's still on. I can't complain.

I was lucky enough to witness the final launch of Discovery on my birthday, piloted by one of my mom's former students. Our manned space program is in flux right now as we try to make it cheaper and safer and try to reach beyond Earth's orbit. Exploration will never be perfectly safe, but we can always strive for perfection. We are unfortunately at the mercy of the Russians for rides to the International Space Station for the next few years, but I would hate for us to continue the shuttle program and have some catastrophe that the new launch systems were designed to minimize. Who could live with that blood on their hands?

NASA tested the Orion capsule for splashdown last week, seeing what might happen in rough seas. While private companies work on replacements for the literal shuttle trips between the surface and low Earth orbit, our national program is working to expand our horizon past LEO and the moon. We have never been good as a species at saying, "OK, we've gone far enough."

Thankfully, there are good shows like "The Universe" to keep us inspired in what lies beyond our little home. Exploration has a high cost in treasure and lives, but we cannot afford to give it up and be content with what we think we already know.

I'm up for ideas

Got any great geek topics or news? Let me know in the comments! One thing I would love to know is whether anybody else uses the day after a holiday -- in this case, Halloween -- to stock up for next year.

I moved into my house about two months before Halloween a few years ago. I bought a couple of orange LED icicle light sets before the holiday and then doubled it up afterward. Last year I added a few more LED pumpkin light sets to my decor.

Today is Nov. 1, meaning the pilgrimage to Target to see what is left and how cheap it is. I really need some items to spruce up the front lawn, but I want them to use LED lights so they'll be as bright as my house lights and save me some power over the years. I'm not crazy enough to graduate to more lights yet because I just don't want to get on a ladder and put them on the roof. When Christmas comes around, I'm the same way.

Did you find any deals this morning? If so, let me know in the comments. Until next time.

Michael Buckelew is part of the digital team for SCNI, the parent company of the Gwinnett Daily Post.

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