John

( NBC Television/Getty Images)

Don Herbert was my childhood hero, even more so than Captain Kangaroo (who went to AIC with my dad…). It was Mr. Wizard who captivated my mind and made me want to be a scientist. OK, I\’m an engineer, but engineering is the application of science to solve real-world problems. (OK, so I\’m a software engineer, but still…).

It was Mr. Wizard who made me curious about the world around me. Curious enough to dismantle shotgun shells to make little explosives (Yes, I still have all my fingers), mix Drano with aluminum foil to produce hydrogen gas to lift balloons into the not-so-far atmosphere over Monson, Massachusetts where I grew up (Yes, I still have both of my eyes).

It was Mr. Wizard who made me want to learn everything, and for that I\’m eternally grateful.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Wizard.

God\’s will be done.

I just got this email in from my good buddy tarek omar (who I don\’t actually know, really. That was my attempt at facetiousness, in case you\’re from California and don\’t get sarcasm, irony, and facetious):

Dear Friend,

I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we have never
met before, but need not to worry as I am using the only secured and
confidential medium available to seek for your foreign assistance in a
business. I am contacting you independently of my investigation and no
one is informed of this communication.

I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of $11.3million
immediately to your private account. The money has been here in our
Bank lying dormant for nine good years now without anybody coming for the
claim of it.

I want to release the money to you as the nearest person to our
deceased customer (the account owner) who died a long with his supposed NEXT OF
KIN since August 1997. The Banking ethics here does not allow such money to stay more than 10
years, because the money will be recalled to the Bank treasury as unclaimed
fund.

Upon receipt of your reply, indicating your interest in this transaction,
I will send you full details on how the business will be executed.

Please keep this proposal as a top secret and delete if you are not
interested.

Regards,

MR TAREK OMAR
African development Bank.
Burkina Faso, West Africa,

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Note that the email, purportedly from Burkina-Faso, come with German text in the MSN tag at the end. Not a very clean attempt at deception…

In case you want to write to Mr. Omar on my behalf, here\’s his email address. Perhaps you can help him move the $11.3 million out of Burkina-Faso.

mr_taomar70@yahoo.fr although the displayed address is mr_omartarek37@hotmail.com – again, not a very convincing deception!

I was in Antwerp recently on business (yeah, I have a tough life). This church (Cathedral of Our Lady) was right outside my hotel room. It’s the largest Gothic cathedral in the lowlands, which I think includes Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands ( or “Benelux” as it’s known in some circles). This photo was in the late afternoon, after work, so the white limestone doesn’t show quite its true color. I wish I’d gotten to go inside and light a candle for Mom and Glenna…

Just follow this link to find out absolutely, positively all the information there is about your birthday. None of it is at all important to you, but it\’s a fun read…

My friend/neighbor/fellow ham Philip is about to go on three months medical disability while the doctors in Boston (BU Medical Center) kill off his bone marrow and try to get it to regenerate. Philip has been diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare bone marrow disorder. Here is Philip\’s blog.