A little respect, please.

Our local science museum is closed, allegedly temporarily, although the light is growing dim. The institution’s financial problems are broad, deep and rather simple — it doesn’t have any. Money, that is. It can’t borrow, as it’s already tapped out a line of credit and defaulted on a loan. You think to yourself, how could things have gotten so bad?

No simple answer, but the biggest chunk? Bad management. Also, those stupid mummies.

The billboards for the “Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato” exhibit were everywhere for a while. I seem to recall they emphasized the actual human corpses!!! angle, and coming so soon after the museum hosted one of those Chinese real-bodies exhibits, I wondered if I couldn’t spin it into an essay for someone, as it seemed so obvious that was the hook.

For those who’ve never been to one, the Chinese exhibits — Body Worlds, Bodies: The Exhibition, one or two others — were a gimmicky attraction a while back. It used a technique called “plastination” to put a whole cemetery full of corpses on display, many with baroque cutaways revealing various internal systems. All the specimens were Chinese, which led to obvious questions about provenance, as they say in the art world. Patrons were assured all was on the up-and-up, that the individuals had donated their bodies to science willingly, and don’t give it another thought. On the other hand, no one ever saw a signed release, either.

I snuck away to see it while chaperoning a field trip with Kate’s fourth-grade class. I found it…interesting. Not terribly ghoulish, but not without a distinct whiff of it, either. (“There is no odor,” an elderly docent assured us as we rode an elevator to the special floor, the same briefing where we were handed the donated-to-science story.) There were moments of strange beauty — I recall a circulatory system standing alone like a red cloud — and others I found unnecessary, like the preserved fetuses. But OK, I saw it, cross that one off the list.

When the bodies were followed by the mummies, it seemed to bespeak a trend. Further reading was appalling. The mummies were “accidental” because they’d been interred in above-ground burial niches in a particular mountain town, where the combination of high heat and low humidity dessicated them quickly. They were discovered when families could no longer pay a municipal grave tax, and the bodies were evicted from not-so-final resting places. They were collected for the exhibit the old-fashioned way, with pesos.

The show was gussied up with material about life in a 19th-century Mexican village and other cultural displays, but the attraction was the bodies themselves. To me, this was a distinct call-and-raise on Chinese political prisoners; come look at bodies of people who could be the parents or grandparents of living people, with no real science attached beyond the stuff that could be covered in a paragraph.

And the Detroit Science Center actually curated this thing, dumping $1 million into it in hopes it would be a moneymaker when it went on the road, but there was a lawsuit, and so far it’s only opened in one other city (Dallas), and it didn’t do so well there, either.

I don’t have a particularly Catholic view of human remains. When the soul, if any, departs, our bodies are just 100-plus pounds of inconvenient meat. But I think we have the right to determine what happens to our meat afterward, and I bet all those Mexican folks had no idea they’d be put in a traveling sideshow. It was maybe a bridge too far.

So, bloggage?

Of all the things I thought would sink Rick Perry, I never thought it would be the casual racism of his family’s hunting-camp moniker, but whatever. As in most questions about racial issues, I turn to Ta-Nehisi Coates, and I think he has this one about right.

Meanwhile, as is often the case, Cooz offers us some musical accompaniment, with apologies to John Prine:

When I was a young pol my family would travel
to a corner of Texas where the ranches once lay
There’s a big n… rock we couldn’t flip over
so we paid us some n…cowhands to paint it one day

Chorus:
And daddy won’t you take me back to N…..head Hunt Club
Down by the Brazos with a kilo of blow
Well I’m sorry my son
But the Jews found our marker
And now every faggot and commie’ll know

Well sometimes we’d travel on up to the Brazos
and shoot at the migrants a’ washin their clothes
But we was so coked up we couldn’t hit nothin
and I sucked a whole Sani-Straw right up my nose.

Then the whole DC Press corps came down with their shovels
and they talked to the neighbors
And they looked at the…rock.
And now they’re all squawkin’ that I’m just a racist
So I called George Allen
and we had us a talk.

I said “George, my campaign’s floated right down the Brazos. And that old n…Herman Cain’s trying to crucify me.”
And old George said “Macaca, who gave you my number? And why do you crackers think my time is free?”

Repeat chorus.

If you missed this yesterday, don’t.

A beautiful day is shaping up outside, and I have errands to run, which I think I will do on the bike. So I’m outta here, all.

Posted at 9:36 am in Current events, Detroit life |
 

41 responses to “A little respect, please.”

  1. Dexter said on October 4, 2011 at 9:58 am

    “…dead bodies make me happy…”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WA1xbwl3mw

    or, the curious case of Elmer McCurdy
    http://www.cracked.com/article_15628_the-5-creepiest-urban-legends-that-happen-to-be-true.html

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  2. Deborah said on October 4, 2011 at 10:01 am

    I once had a conversation with a guy who was associated with one of those Body World knock-offs. I don’t remember how or why I met him but he told me that they had a really hard time getting the bodies through customs when they traveled around the world. The original exhibit was at the Museum of Science and Industry but I didn’t go, I wanted to but never made it out there.

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  3. Dexter said on October 4, 2011 at 10:08 am

    I was referred to this wonderful Halloween picture by Davey Mac, the podcaster at Davey Mac Sports Program!! , an i-Tunes podcast.
    http://www.EastSideDaveCountry.com/sport

    Enjoy…it really is Don Mattingly’s (NY Yankees legend and Hoosier native) wife.
    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/730647-top-25-worst-spouses-in-sports/page/10

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  4. Connie said on October 4, 2011 at 10:24 am

    I saw Body Worlds in Chicago and the red cloud of the circulatory system is the picture that has stuck in my mind.

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  5. caliban said on October 4, 2011 at 10:34 am

    What I find hilarious about Perry and his hunting camp welcome mat is the sheer stupidity of having left that rock with that message in plain sight while nurturing fond national political ambitions. On the dumb-as-grunt scale, this ranks with Gary Hart and Monkey Business (although, to this day, I believe Hart’s behavior and goading of reporters was a gruesome form of political auto da fe). Given the lapidary nature of Perry’s offense, I think his moronic faux pas can be classified as literally monumental. Since the whole megilla centers on a hunting camp, Bugs Bunny’s commentary is worth consideration, with Perry as Elmew Fudd, the feawless wabbit huntew:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo&feature=related

    I mean, you just know Perry has friends with Escalade-mounted 50-cals and others that like to go dynamite fishing. He couldn’t think of any way to blow that rock to smithereens?

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  6. adrianne said on October 4, 2011 at 11:06 am

    OK, the story about the Tea Party guy with a yen for hiring prostitutes reminds me of this fundamental message: Whenever a politician criticizes someone else’s morals (prostitutes, adultery, etc.), he or she is guilty of the same thing.

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  7. caliban said on October 4, 2011 at 11:16 am

    Dexter, Maybe Mattingly should talk to McCord about divorce lawyers. As a Dodgers fan, I certainly wish both those East Coast carpetbag incompetents would get the hell out of California, and take their Medusa-wives with them. Mattingly’s rookie managing year was a showcase of managerial incompetence.

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  8. Peter said on October 4, 2011 at 11:26 am

    Caliban (or whatever your name is) and Adrianne, you’re so absolutely right.

    Years ago I read a story about the company that makes those Christmas fruit cakes. I still remember the reporter asking about how much alcohol is in the cakes, and the owner said “None. There’s over 20 million Americans who are teetotalers, and I’d be dumber than stupid writing off those potential customers”.

    I mean really, Guvnuh. You have to think that sooner or later, there would be a sumbitch who would be offended by your rock. How much could it possibly cost to have some teenager or Mexican throw some black paint on it? Fifty bucks? Regardless of what you think (and I think I know what you think), isn’t it worth it just to hide the evidence? Or is the rock worth more as it is with your huntin’ buddies.

    And as for the Tea Party chairman with the hooker hankering – first off, I’m so proud he’s from Illinois – I thought there might be a letdown after Blagojevich. But you should check out the comments on the Tribune website. Plenty of the “you liberals can’t criticize – you do it yourselves – what about people like Wiener” and I’m like:

    1. Well, the liberals aren’t the ones who are shoving the family morals down our throats,
    2. The liberals DID complain about Wiener!
    3. He DID resign because of it!

    So there. Take the hint, Joe Walsh.

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  9. Jimmie Cracked Thornes said on October 4, 2011 at 11:37 am

    “Funny how the same people who laugh at others for eschewing science in the name of maintaining their values are the same people who can walk by the Body Worlds exhibit, see the seven week fetus, and move on without batting an eye.”

    -Dennis Miller

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  10. brian stouder said on October 4, 2011 at 11:37 am

    Imagine the triumphal SCREECHES of the flying monkeys of the right-wing airwaves, if it had come to light in the fall of 2007 that Senator Obama leased a place called Kill Whitey Lodge, (or Secret Mecca Meadows, or whatever else).

    Would ANY of this business about parsing when “painting over a rock” occurred make any difference, at all?

    The whole question would be “Why the hell did this guy EVER go there to BEGIN with? What does this tell us about his SOUL?” – etc etc.

    Instead, I heard our local lip flapper try and divert the issue to Barbara Walters (and the ladies at The View), lamenting the silliness of who can say which words, and who cannot; and Uncle Rush speculated that the name on the rock was “probably written by a Democrat”.

    What?

    I think Perry ain’t out yet; my bet – seriously – is that if Romney gets the nomination the Republican party will split, and the main players know it.

    (Christie of NJ is almost as troublesome as Romney, policy-wise, but he’s not a Mormon; I think this is why he still lingers over there on stage-left, gauging whether Perry is going to capsize quickly enough)

    This nativist/know-nothing/inchoate anger thing that the R’s have ridden for the past 3 years is melting down, and may well burst out of containment and split the R’s (handing the president his re-election).

    And then we can listen to them cry and whine about the electoral system we have, which will be a refreshing case of shoe-on-the-other-foot

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  11. Jeff Borden said on October 4, 2011 at 11:39 am

    I’d like to add another note about this Teacon event in Schaumburg, aside from the usual moral scold being caught with his pants around his ankles yet again. These assholes never learn.

    The metropolitan area of Chicago is somewhere between 8.5 and 9 million people. While the city and Cook County are deep, deep blue, the collar counties are proudly Republican and feature some of the same style of stupid, drooling goobers as you’d find in west Texas or northern Idaho. And yet the attendance at Teacon was a mere 1,000 folks, who were treated to the stylings of Herman Cain and the rantings of professional throbbing nerve Andrew Breitbart, who gallantly described Jeanine Garafalo as “Hollywood’s mercy fuck” and told the union leaders who’ve spoken out against the plutocrats to get fucked.

    One thousand people???? Shouldn’t this be seen for what it is? Pathetic?

    And Joe Walsh? As disgusting a slice of hypocrite as walks upright.

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  12. Jeff Borden said on October 4, 2011 at 11:51 am

    CNN is quoting a GOP source that Gov. Chris Christie will announce today that he is NOT seeking the presidency.

    Unless we learn that Mitt has a pool boy on the side, he’s going to be the nominee, which is a mixed bag for progressives. There will be an enormous enthusiasm gap on the right, much as there was for John McCain, which is good news. But I fear Romney will mount a good campaign and will look reasonable after the public has witnessed the insane circus of the GOP beauty pageant.

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  13. Maggie Jochild said on October 4, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    Dubya was just as stupid and insulated as Perry — he had better handlers, is all. Rats behind the scenes destroying records and covering up. Perry has existed in a Texas whiteboy bubble for too long, and I knew the national Kleig lights would catching him blinking blankly. What I’m really waiting for is the Larry Flynt $1 million bounty to come in, because then Perry will be toast in Tejas as well.

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  14. caliban said on October 4, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Not a pool boy, I think JeffB, but Romney sure had a crew of undocumented Colombian landscapers working at his Belmont manse while he was goobernor. How does that get reconciled with the Gangbaggers? And aside from what he inherited from his dad, didn’t he support his family exclusively by throwing people out of work with devastated pension funds during his non-political adult life?

    I find Janine Garofalo very intelligent and mordantly sarcastic. Like to see her against Breitbart face to face. The weenie would end up running away whining with his balls cupped in his hands, presuming he has any.

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  15. beb said on October 4, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    I feel sad about the Science Center closing. We had memberships for a while, when our daughter was younger. The problem for this or any Science Center is convincing people to be repeat visitors.

    Jon Stewart had a pretty good take on the Niggarhead story,, first making fun of a politician who can’t see the embarrassment of such a place name, then pointing out the many places in the US with that identical name or with names of a similar racist nature.

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  16. Jeff Borden said on October 4, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    Caliban,

    Yes, that is exactly what Bain Capital did as a turnaround firm. They made money by busting up companies into parts, or by enormous downsizing. It was not a company that made anything, per se, and was responsible for sending tens of thousands into unemployment. A case might be made that Bain preserved the jobs of others by making companies more efficient and competitive, but Romney cannot claim to have actually created jobs.

    Jeanine Garofalo is a cool woman, but the problem with engaging a douche bag like Andrew Breitbart is that he will simply yell louder. He is a classic, loud-mouthed bully and I’d love to see Ms. Garofalo geld him, but she’d need a microphone and an amplifier. Actually, what I’d really like to see if Ms. Garofalo’s boyfriend (or girlfriend) punch Breitbart right in the nose for his ungentlemanly behavior. Sure, he’d go off on “violent liberals,” but he’d do it with a broken nose and that would be funny to see.

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  17. Jakash said on October 4, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Mercy-fuck? You think a weasel like him has ever had any other kind?

    We went to the Body Worlds at the MSI, which was a borderline decision. I didn’t feel that the extent to which it was interesting ended up outweighing the extent to which it was creepy. “But OK, I saw it, cross that one off the list.” Check.

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  18. Jeff Borden said on October 4, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    I think I’ve found a great new Halloween costume.

    http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/story-time-with-the-gingrich-family.php?ref=fpblg

    And no, I’m not talking about the elephant.

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  19. coozledad said on October 4, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    Dennis Miller is more feces-packed than a foie gras goose. The only fetal displays I’ve ever seen were at the NC state fair back in the seventies. They were in the jars right next to the two headed calves and the amputated gangrenous leg. I always thought they put them there to chum up the real display, which was a bunch of strabismic homunculi smearing their faces with funnel cakes and chili-in-a-bag.
    If “batting an eye” is equivalent to cooing “Shee-ut! Look at that booger!”, well, I guess he’s right that science types are immune to the charms of fetal corpses.
    I suspect junior-in-a-jar brings in the same flies that swarmed to public executions and lynchings back in the carefree days the Republicans get so wistful about. I might be giving away the store here, but they could use them as an attraction to recruit an especially remorseless cadre of poll watchers: brutally efficient and immune to sympathy.

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  20. Deborah said on October 4, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    I have to admit, I had to google chili-in-a-bag, I’d never heard that one. I don’t think I’ll be fixing that anytime soon.

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  21. caliban said on October 4, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    Larry McMurtry on Goobernor Perry. All hat, no cattle, with a hilarious photo illustration. Yippie Ki Ay, mofo.

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  22. Connie said on October 4, 2011 at 4:00 pm

    I’ve always known chili in a bag as taco salad in a bag from street fairs etc. Last weekend my husband left me home alone on our anniversary and went down to IU to visit our daughter. They spent Saturday at Seymour Oktoberfest in the small southern Indiana town where we lived for 14 years. That was where I first sampled whatever you wish to call it in a bag. I told him to bring me some “sati-babi” and he said he wasn’t about to carry a pork shish kebob 400 miles back home. Instead he was able to buy me a bottle of sati-babi sauce. We have been stir frying with it since he got home.

    What’s the point of the seven week fetus comment. What am I missing? And I recall a special display of pregnant women’s uterus s (Uteri?) and fetuses, set aside behind a curtain. Was there a seven week one that was somehow special? Body Worlds was definitely one of those things you only need to see once.

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  23. caliban said on October 4, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Clever, concise, short, short fiction fromm NYRB, With three interesting paintings. Sort of like Thurber’s Fables for Our Times, but without hilarious moral aphorisms, none as good as The Bear Who Let It Alone, apropos of all the discussion of the Ken Burns documentary.

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  24. Jolene said on October 4, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    Great piece by McMurtry, Caliban. Thanks for the link.

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  25. moe99 said on October 4, 2011 at 5:11 pm

    http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2011/10/ohio-kasich-governor-raise-cuts

    Gov. Kasich somehow found a way to give himself a raise. Nice going guv!

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  26. caliban said on October 4, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    Now if the people that voted for Kasich and dickheads like him have an ounce of self-respect, self-awareness, or integrity of what they claim as political beliefs, shouldn’t they turn on him like rabid dogs andd run his sorry ass out of Dodge?

    Mike Stipe, visual arts, short doc. He’s articulate for a guy everybody used to call Mumbles, and obviously doesn’t take himself too seriously.

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  27. Suzanne said on October 4, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago used to have a few fetuses in jars, which creeped us out when my class visited in middle school (early 70s); creepy, but we all kept looking. It never, ever occurred to me at that age where the museum got them.

    However, that picture of Calista Gingrich with that elephant mascot thing is far creepier.

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  28. LAMary said on October 4, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    Calista never fails to satisfy the need for creepy. It’s the eyes, the hard hat hair, the fact she sleeps with Newt.

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  29. coozledad said on October 4, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    Now who do you reckon they’re going to get to pick those tomatoes? You can bet it’s not going to be any stickypants teabaggers.
    http://wonkette.com/454271/dumb-alabama-immigration-law-working-so-well-its-crops-are-rotting#more-454271
    The South: Blowing its brains all over the shithouse wall since 1861.

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  30. Kirk said on October 4, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Calista baby looks like she had one of those Martian mind-control gadgets drilled into the back of her neck like in “Invaders from Mars.”

    Actually, she looks like she might have gotten a booster shot.

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  31. alex said on October 4, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    Not that I’d ever do a man like Newt, but it would be so fun to have someone bankrolling me to write didactic children’s books. I think my main character would be a fetus that does time travel and pops its head out to witness historic events and make Swiftian observations, only to go back to the safety of the womb.

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  32. coozledad said on October 4, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    We’ll probably never know the details of Newt’s sexual proclivities. This is due to a complete absence of public curiosity. If I were forced to make a wild guess, I’d say he’s an armpit guy, but Calista’s hairdo makes that theory problematic for purely logistical reasons.
    I can predict with some confidence “Newt Gingrich: The Horny Years” will see very few sales in hardcover, and the paperbacks will have a limited run as gag gifts. Literally.

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  33. Linda said on October 4, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    coozledad @ 29:
    Have you read The Warmth of Other Suns? In it, the author discusses the very real dilemma of a social environment so harsh and dangerous in the early 20th century south for African-Americans that they, of course, fled, to the point that there were serious labor shortages, and coercion was used to keep African Americans from migrating. Everything was tried, apparently, except making life safe and prosperous for them.

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  34. Dexter said on October 5, 2011 at 2:19 am

    I was walking the dog about a half hour ago, at about 1:30 AM, and on the radio in my ear I kept hearing people from Pennsylvania, Ohio, including NW Ohio where I am, West Virginia, Virginia, and central Indiana calling in reporting a giant streaking mass in the sky, brilliant and trailing a blue tail. Two people called in and reported what they assumed was a sonic boom.
    No, this was not any of those crazy “Art Bell Stations” that talk about UFOs all night, these people were truck drivers and the station was WLW-AM, Cincinnati.
    I believed them, as after all, we are scheduled to be treated to a huge meteor show in a week or so. How something this huge got by undetected is rather odd. Also, there is not a goddam thing about any of this available via Google, to the best of my ability I cannot find a thing.
    on edit: Damn! I just found something, including a sightig in Bryan, Ohio, where I am…elpasoallsky blogspot blog is the source:
    10/04/2011 07:27:00 PM
    Large Michigan, Ohio, Ontario Canada Meteor Fireball 04OCT2011
    Email From:
    Karen S.-Novi, MI:
    Tonight (October 4 2011) around 8 pm we heard a boom, I went to sit outside and about 8:10 pm I witnessed the most beautiful bright green and orange long streaking fireball shoot across the sky in the city of Novi, MI. I was in such awe to see such a beautiful thing, wondering if this was a meteor or what, it reminded me of a very brightly lit bottle rocket shooting across the sky, but there was no noise. Do you know what this was? I really would like to know if what I witnessed was indeed a meteor.

    From T.J.-Bryan, OH:
    On 10/04/2011 I was traveling east on state route 6 in Bryan O.H. And saw a green flash with like a red end to the green trail it only lasted a few seconds and vanished it was on the northern side of the Highway.

    Kevin K.-Kitchener Ontario, Canada:
    I was driving “North” along Hwy. 85 near Bridgeport Road exit and saw a very bright, long lasting meteor losing altitude, moving from West to North, in North West horizon over Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Light seemed to have terminated close to horizon. No other radio or internet reports seen or heard as of yet.
    Hope this is useful.
    Kevin

    Roman V.-Embro Ontario, Canada:
    Hi there, at approximately 7:58 pm tonight driving westbound on the 401 in SW Ontario Canada between Kitchener and Woodstock (aprox 5-6KM east of exit 250) I spotted a huge green ball to the west travelling from the south west in a northerly direction however it appeared to be losing altitude quite quick as well as fragmenting before it disappeared behind the tree line of the horizon.
    I live 10miles west/Nwest of Woodstock and still being at least 20-25 minutes from home I thought it possible it may have traveled almost over my house.
    More than likely it was closer to Lake Huron but no way to tell either way.
    Hope this helps.
    Cheers, Roman

    Jill D.-Novi, MI:
    At approximately 8:30pm October 4, 2011 I saw what looked like a comet or a meteor with a fiery long tail. It was moving pretty quickly and I was only able to see it for a few seconds. I am in Novi, MI and I am so curious if anyone else has seen it and if so, can u tell me what we saw!!

    J.L.-Windsor Ontario, Canada:
    I am located in Windsor Ontario Canada , right across the river from Detroit Michigan ,Was watching tv OCT 4 2011 about 8 pm when I noted a glow from the front window which faces west. I have seen many shooting stars before & this appeared to much larger than anything I have seen , It was coming down at 45 degree angle & slower than the usual shooting star , was visible for 10 seconds or so before it went behind trees. It looked large & very bright green there seemed to be a white halo around the edge & it was trailing white sparks , it broke into 2 pieces both trailing white sparks. Fom my position it appeared to be heading west northwest It was bright enough & large enough that I wonder if it impacted , surely someone saw it….

    Cheryl M.-South Haven, MI:
    I saw the fireball this evening (October 4, 2011) at around 8:05 pm EST. I am in South Haven, Michigan along the Lake Michigan shoreline. I was facing East and saw it move from upper right to lower left in the sky. Upper left to lower right. As it moved across the sky it moved downward. It happened so fast but long enough to be in awe. I questioned what I say and thought fireworks but there was no sound. I did not hear a boom before the seeing the light. We had just come outside 5 minutes earlier. My biggest impression was the size of the white light ball that than streaked. I told my son that I thought I saw green too at the time but now that a few hours have passed I’m not remembering exact details regarding the color. Grateful to have witnessed it! We had just come outside to check out the moon. What an unexpected sky treat!
    Thanks, Cheryl

    Marc P.-South Central MI:
    This evening shortly before 8p EDT, I witnessed a greenish/yellow streak like a comet in the western sky as I faced southwest in lower-mid Michigan. It lasted for 6-8 seconds before it dissipated behind a 60′ tree I was under. It moved much slower than the usual shooting stars that I’ve seen and its trail was 5-7 tea the size of the moon at that time. It was quite brilliant. I’m quite fascinated to learn about other eyewitness accounts. Is this an early part of the NASA predicted show of October 8??
    ***If you are searching for information about this fireball and/or witnessed it, please leave a report of what you saw at wxtx01@gmail.com Please include the date and time, the direction you were facing/driving, the direction in which the object moved (upper left to lower right etc.) approximate size and brightness compared to a full moon, color, any flashes, streaks, fragmentation and any sounds or delayed sounds such as sonic booms, hisses, sizzles etc. Thank you! Your information is vital to research/recovery efforts so please take time to report.***

    at 10/04/2011 07:27:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post
    Labels: 04OCT2011, fireball, Large, meteor, Michigan
    10/04/2011 03:15:00 AM
    BREAKING METEOR FIREBALL NEWS…Major Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey Meteor Fireball 04OCT2011…Sonic Booms Reported
    UPDATE !! FIRST IMAGES OBTAINED BY ELPALLSKY:

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  35. moe99 said on October 5, 2011 at 3:06 am

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/10/05/get-ready-not-to-vote/

    Remember when the Republicans were foaming at the mouth about vote fraud and ACORN? Well it was all a ruse so we wouldn’t notice that they’ve disenfranchised 5 million voters across the nation by making it difficult for the poor, the students, those that traditionally vote Democrat, to register to vote. Anyone who defends this sort of attack on one of our fundamental rights deserves heaping helpings of scorn.

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  36. Linda said on October 5, 2011 at 6:32 am

    Moe, you will be heartened, I hope, to know that in Ohio, the Republican-pushed through law shortening voting periods and making it harder to vote overall is frozen from taking place because there were enough petition signitures to put it on the ballot in 2012.

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  37. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 5, 2011 at 7:23 am

    Dexter, I missed that one, but ended up on TV news a couple winters back being one of the few maroons out at 10 pm in 10 degrees scraping ice; rattled lots of car alarms and set off outdoor light photocells all across central Ohio. After an interview with our state geologist, he told me if the right metals are in the bolide, it could be as little as fist sized as it hits the atmosphere, and the fireball would cover multiple states. He estimated the one I saw was visible over a few hundred miles, and when I noted it seemed as if it was soundlessly scorching just a few hundred or a thousand feet up, he replied “Nah, higher than that, but the angle was just right — impact was probably in Missouri or Arkansas.” FWIW. The one described up in your neck of the woods probably came to earth, if any survived (and a few bits likely did), in Saskatchewan.

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  38. Dexter said on October 5, 2011 at 8:13 am

    In the wake of the N!66#rhead painted rock story, Moo Yoo weighs in with this charming story.
    http://www.detnews.com/article/20111005/SCHOOLS/110050357/Rash-of-racial-slurs-hits-MSU

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  39. alex said on October 5, 2011 at 8:19 am

    Remember when the Republicans were foaming at the mouth about vote fraud and ACORN?

    Republicans are always foaming at the mouth and it’s because they don’t believe in getting vaccinated for HPV.

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  40. coozledad said on October 5, 2011 at 8:25 am

    Linda: I’ll have to read that. The south seems to favor hostility as a baseline in their fucked-up vision of the social contract. The veneer of civility is a sham. There’s a curious even-handedness in this approach, however. A lot of them hate pretty much everybody: Family, friends, coworkers. Anyone you’ve had long term exposure to is despised. Now that I think about it, that might be one of the factors that attracted me to the socialists, yankees, and foreigners. That, and the fact those groups tended to live at the bar.

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  41. caliban said on October 5, 2011 at 9:32 am

    Well, in Tejas, your concealed carry license is valid voter ID, but a student ID is expressly omitted from the list of valid IDs. So much for democracy in the state’s capital city. Student ideas are being legislated against as valid at the polls in several states. That’s voter suppression that would make Putin or Saddam proud.

    Oh, and no single instance of vote fraud by ACORN was ever brought to light by GOPers.

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