Lunch With George!

May 23, 2002 - Fat Burger

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Agenda

Fat Burger
The Castle
Meta Research
All the Obituaries Ended the Same Way...

FatBurger

George and I tried yet another restaurant at Desert Ridge Marketplace: yep, it's FATBURGER. I mentioned to George upon entering the place that it looked like they bought a lot of stuff at a Johnny Rocket's fire sale. You'll find the typical chrome and shiny vinyl seats, burgers wrapped in paper that goes around the burger while still revealing a good portion to bite (see photo), and a jukebox.

In reality, if anyone copied someone else it was Johnny Rockets who may have copied FATBURGER-- they've been in business for 50 years! They have a motto: "Converting vegetarians since 1952".

They're basically a burger, fries, rings, and milkshake kind of place. There is a chicken breast sandwich for those who want to pretend to be good, but I'll bet they don't sell many.

George and I enjoyed our meal, but it wasn't terribly noteworthy-- it was just a good hamburger (cheeseburger, in my case) and fries. If I'm going to be bad and eat a big slab o' saturated animal fat, I'd rather spend it on a Fuddrucker's burger or the Tons o' Fun Burger at the Cheesecake Factory. Still, it was a good burger!

The Castle

George told me a few months ago about a movie called The Castle, from the same screenwriter/director (Rob Sitch) who brought us The Dish (No, I still haven't seen it, George). This is the film about a man living on the edge of an airport who loves his home and it's convenient location Unfortunately, the airport needs to expand, and plans to invoke Emminent Domain to acquire his property.

George had an opportunity to see a free showing of the Castle sponsored by the Institute for Justice. They have opened an Arizona chapter, and were presenting the film to educate people on the issue of unjust taking of property. Among other services, the Institute offers pro bono defense of individuals whose property is targeted for "condemnation". They have a website dedicated to the issue of Eminent Domain Abuse: CastleCoalition.org. Sounds pretty cool!

Meta Research

I visited Tom Van Flandern's Meta Research web site this week, and found an interesting new article. NASA (and others with access to the data) have discovered that the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, currently on its way out of the Solar System, has been accelerated in an unexpected direction. There has been media coverage of this issue in the past two years or so, with some speculating that the trajectory is being affected by a hidden planet. Sounds like the perfect subject for Dr. Tom's website, huh?

Well, I'm really impressed by his response. He dismisses the whole idea of a "mystery" body, and presents a very sensible solution: The nuclear power cell on the Pioneer is emitting a fair amount of energy, and data from NASA and the manufacturer show it is likely assymetric. This should be enough to nudge the Pioneer craft in the manner shown by the observations. Read the whole thing on the Meta Research in the News web page.

Pioneer 10 is still going strong after 30 years. NASA recently used the Deep Space Network to uplink a command. 23 hours later, they received new data from Pioneer! There's some great additional info at the Pioneer Homepage.

I also discovered that the Meta Research site now has a Discussion Board, where readers can post questions to Dr. Van Flandern and get answers. There is already a lot of material there-- I'm gonna have to go back and look through it in more detail.

All the Obituaries Ended the Same Way...

We were talking about doing risky things (like mountain climbing) and skydiving also came up. A few weeks before, Teri told me she had really wanted to skydive as a young adult... until the 'chute belonging to her Resident Assistant in the dorm (who was an avid skydiver) failed to open.

George was telling me that he had seen a newsletter for a national skydiving club. Interesting stories, I'm sure, but the part which caught George's attention was the classified area in the back. It no doubt contained equipment for sale and announcements for upcoming jump opportunities, but it also contained obituaries... and they all ended with the same information. "Cause of death: impact."

Last modified 06/17/2002.

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