I would like to thank all of you that helped me get to the Ween show in Montreal.

Thanks to Dannielle, who took it upon herself to take the kids camping over the weekend. And to Taj for helping out with that.

Thanks to “Skippy” for informing me of the show in the first place.

Thanks to Peter and Cheryl for giving “Skippy” and I a place to stay, and eat.

Thanks to Gene and Dean for putting Montreal on the tour.

Now for a little recounting:

Losing track of time during dinner, “Skippy” and I find that we must do some fast-walking in order to make it to the Metropolis on time. Through the Mile-End, the plateau, and Downtown, speeding past children playing, people chatting, and men trying on women’s clothing, we made it to the venue with no time to spare. Walking into the crowded floor area I conceded that the ticket price was worth it, just to know that this many people dug Ween too. First, quickly to urinate, as I didn’t want any signals from my nervous system to distract me from taking in the full extent of the music. “Skippy” I’ll catch you later. So, up, up, up the stairs. To the urinals. Ahhh. Then, a thundering roar from the audience and a surly groan from those chained to their urinals (me included) by streaming liquid shackles. Quick zip and run to the floor. A quick look over the crowd and I resigned to the fact that I would not be reunited with my friend. However no sooner did I come to terms with that than I received a poke from an elated “Skippy”. The rest was shear musical power. Ween played to an amazingly attentive crowd that hung on every chord and cheered every feat of creativity like the Forum crowds of the 70’s once did for the Flower, Shutty and Lemaire. Gotta love Montreal, no matter what some 2 bit bus driver from Ontario has to say about it.

Well it seems that our united Canada is doing just fine, as was evidenced by the attitude of my Coach Canada bus driver as I boarded in Toronto on route to Montreal.  When I showed surprise that there would be a different driver after our stop in Kingston the driver quipped:”I don’t drive to Montreal, I prefer to stay in Canada.  If I make one trip to Montreal a year that is one too many.”  Go Leafs Go, eh?

In this regard I tend to agree with Noam Chomsky when he says that the nation state is an unnecessary and evil human construct, I’m paraphrasing there but that is the gist of it.

And to recall one of my other great influences, Robert Anton Wilson, one day when we are all living on exo-planetary colonies, drawing energy from the virtually limitless source that is our sun, while the Earth has been declared a Galactic environmental protection zone, borders will be quite meaningless.

We just returned from a week in Toronto.  Dannielle was taking in the HotDoc festival while Taj, Deszmo and I hung out.

Deszmo and taj posing for their new album from the lookout of the CN Tower.

Deszmo on the glass floor 500 some meters above downtown Toronto.

Taj reflecting from an eastbound subway car.

The Organizers of the 2007 Space Generation Congress hope all of you had a great Yuri’s Night and weekend.  There is just about 24 hours left for you to apply for the 2007 SGC!!  This year promises to be a great congress.

Applications are still open at http://hyderabad.spacegeneration.org/apply/login.php?id=VGR9KDGJ&fail=true

Hurry before its too late!!!

We hope to see you in India

SGC 2007 Organizers

Tonight is Yuri’s Night!!!

I am in San Antonio where ISGP is commemorating the event with talks by:

• Eugene Ilyin, Deputy Director for the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. Gene has been with the Russian life science program since the beginning. He will speak about the early history of the Russian space life science program.
• Kenneth Souza. Ken has been a scientist/manager at NASA Ames Research Center for his career. He was involved with the joint US/Russian biosatellite program since the beginning. He will speak about the development of US/Russian relationships – programmatic, political and scientific. As a side note, Ken is also the current President of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology.
• Kathy Ryan, a research scientist at the US Army Surgical Research Institute in San Antonio. She has recently conducted a retrospective review of the history of women in the US astronaut program. She will provide a short overview of this history.

Afterward there will be a gathering at ZEN BAR, 221 E Houston ST.

I am in San Antonio, Texas this week for the annual meeting of the International Society for Gravitational Physiology . I gave a presentation on some of the results I obtained while working on the WISE bed rest study over the past year or so. I suppose that means that I am a gravitational physiologist.

I am dog tired and suffering from meat hangover right now so I will leave you with a few photos and try to come up with more interesting banter tomorrow.

This is the view from my hotel room during the day:

This is a view from my hotel room during the night:

The views are of the side of the Alamo, this is the front:

An interesting mailbox:

A Texas BBQ at the ISGP banquet, not quite the same effect without the country music (cowboy covers of Beatles songs no less) but you get the point:

WISE 2005: Flow and Nitroglycerin mediated dilation following 56 days of head down tilt bed rest with and without an exercise countermeasure

K.S. Dyson¹, Ph. Arbeille², J.K. Shoemaker³, M.A. Custaud⁴, and R.L. Hughson¹

¹Cardiorespiratory & Vascular Dynamics Lab, Univ. Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

²Unite Med.Physiol Spatiale, Dept Med Nucl & Ultrasound, CHU Trousseau, 37044 Tours

³Neurovascular Research Lab, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

⁴ UMR CNRS 6188,Faculté de Médecine d’Angers, 49045 Angers, France

ISGP, 2007

Nothing says Christmas like heavy farm equipment. Well at least ones that are decked out in crazy lights and blaring the Chipmunks.

Tonight the Dyson crew headed out to Rockwood to check out the Rockwood Farmers’ Santa Claus Parade of Lights. It did not disapoint. The following pictures are from the website as I forgot my camera at home (Doh!).