Apostrophe S

How ’bout those terrorist guys, eh? Every time I hear about heinous crimes against humanity like the recent beheading of yet another American, a little part of my brain says we should severe every connection we have with the Middle East, pull all Westerners out, build a big wall around the damn place, and sell tickets. It would be like “The Road Warrior: Beyond Thunderdome.” These people seem to think God told them to kill everyone who doesn’t agree with them. That’s a difficult motivation to tackle. I mean, we can deal with greed and power and pride, but people who believe they are doing God’s work are hard to talk down. What’s worse is they become heroes. The saddest part about the whole thing is that many Saudi’s cheered the killers on, despite their government’s support of American interests. Enough about that.

Tonight while at Target, I purchased a bottle of the new Coke product, CocaCola: C2. It’s Coke’s very late match of Pepsi’s Pepsi One, even though it has 45 calories instead of 1. Basically Coke tried to make a cola that was sweetened half with aspartame and half with sugar. It doesn’t taste that bad, but still has that diet soda aftertaste. To be honest, I’m against the use of aspartame. It goes by many names. Sweet N Low, NutraSweet, etc. Newer labels like to use the term “phenylalanine,” because the public is growing suspicious of the term aspartame. Sure, artificial sweeteners reduce the amount of sugar you consume, but the side effects of over use can be devastating to your body. Aspartame can act as a neurotoxin in many people. It’s a carcinogen. Why has the U.S. government done nothing about it? Because Americans spend trillions of dollars on diet products. If the government were to outlaw aspartame, the industry would come to a grinding halt. If you don’t believe me, check out this Web site, sweetpoison.com. If you want to lower your intake of sugar, stop eating and drinking products that are high in sugar. DO NOT just switch to the same products except with aspartame. It’s a very unhealthy choice.

Lastly, do you remember being a kid and looking up at the stars and wondering what they felt like? Well, I did. And just the other day we got one step closer. According to this Washington Post article, NASA scientists sent a spacecraft into the solar system in 1999. The spacecraft just passed through the tail of the comet Wild 2 (pronounced “Vilt”). While in the tail, it opened a catchers-mit type device and collected a sample of the particles in the tail. It’s going to be returning to Earth in early 2006 with it’s cargo. This will be the first time since our visits to the moon that we’ve actually collected something from another celestial object and brought it back to Earth. In my mind, it’s freakin’ amazing. We sent a spacecraft to a comet, collected a sample, and are bringing it back. It blows the mind that we humble creatures are capable of such feats.

Take care…

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