In the past decade, on any given day in the peaceful environs of Grant Park, you might have seen a sturdy workhorse of a man driving his faithful Jeep to and fro … alas, those days have ended.

Less than one year ago, this Jeep came back from a larcenous joyride that would have left other vehicles for lost. It came back painted pink, and covered in mud. Recovered from a Newton County salvage yard, many would have left it for dead. No, not this man among men. He restored the working parts and continued to drive it, pink and muddy. Until this past weekend…

The photograph only tells a wee part of this story.

The owner of this vehicle, Mr. Tad Mitchell gave it all of the love that he could, but in the early morning of May 25, the Jeep burned to the ground while parked across the street from the Grant Park pool.

Tad states that “he is not ruling anything out.” I asked - “was it spontaneous combustion?” Tad states that he is not ruling anything out. I asked - “could it have been a picnic reveller with some leftover lighter fluid - there were 1000’s of people BBQ’ing in the park on Saturday…?” Tad states that he is not ruling anything out.

Possibly, this could have been a hot wire attempt gone bad - nevertheless, City of Atlanta officials have hauled the burned carcass to their laboratory in the hope that they will be able to establish a definitive story. They stand ready to serve a fine citizen like Tad at a moment’s notice.

 I know one Rolling Stones lyric that sums this up - “Sparks Will Fly“:

…You’d better stand back

The flames are high

Better get help

Can’t stop the fire

Bell’s going to ring

Hear the alarms

Better tell the fire chief To quit playing cards…

Primal Scream are one of Scotland’s finest rock ensembles and with a few exceptions, their varied career and dynamic songbook haven’t really reached the shores of the USA en masse. Our over-consulted, cloth-eared Top 40 MOR audiences kinda just take what is fed to them..

Well, instead of the talking heads this morning, I watched rock videos - the following video is one of the best recent rock examples of proper gospel choir usage, and since I’m not attending church today, I am getting my gospel on.

Bobby Gillespie has been getting pop music bloody well right since 1982. Here is “Moving On Up.”

Enjoy the best map of the internet that my friend and Rootdown client Olivia McKinsey has been able to find.

Olivia is the guru behind a burgeoning interactive media firm called, McKinsey Media.

Holler at her if you need to get interactive!

Like Hanan Levin and Scott Hagedorn, she is among the ranks of those who are digital upperclassmen and she speaks the lingua franca of the world wide web.

This is where you will find all of The Rootdown Group’s FEATURED listings…

 

NASA.gov publishes an “image of the day” everyday and today’s image is remarkable.

Read this.

“Pipsqueak Star Unleashes Monster Flare

For many years scientists have known that our sun gives off powerful explosions, known as flares, that contain millions of times more energy than atomic bombs.

But when astronomers compare flares from the sun to flares on other stars, the sun’s flares lose. On April 25, 2008, NASA’s Swift satellite picked up a record-setting flare from a star known as EV Lacertae. This flare was thousands of times more powerful than the greatest observed solar flare. But because EV Lacertae is much farther from Earth than the sun, the flare did not appear as bright as a solar flare. Still, it was the brightest flare ever seen from a star other than the sun.

What makes the flare particularly interesting is the star. EV Lacertae is much smaller and dimmer than our sun. In other words, a tiny, wimpy star is capable of packing a very powerful punch.

How can such a small star produce such a powerful flare? The answer can be found in EV Lacertae’s youth. Whereas our sun is a middle-aged star, EV Lacertae is a toddler. The star is much younger than our sun, and is still spinning rapidly. The fast spin, together with its churning interior, whips up gases to produce a magnetic field that is much more powerful than the sun’s magnetic field.”

Image Credit: Casey Reed/NASA