Luxor Sky Beam

Stairway to the Stars

At 42.3 billion candlepower, the Luxor Sky Beam is the strongest beam of light in the world. Using computer designed, curved mirrors to collect the light from 39 Xenon lamps and focus them into one intense, narrow beam, engineers say that an astronaut could read a newspaper by Luxor’s Sky Beam from ten miles into space. On a clear night, the Sky Beam is visible up to 250 miles away to an airplane at cruising altitude, and is clearly visible from outer space.

BuffCat goes to the Olympics

No Name Saloon

Hand Painted Coin Cufflinks

Hand Painted Coin Cufflinks:

"The art of hand painting coins continues a very old tradition within this unique family of artists. To date, these artists are the only known family in the United States to create these beautiful pieces! Using a variety of straight and curved miniature brushes under extreme magnification, enamel is painstakingly applied capturing every minute detail that naturally exists within the coin. The final process is covering the coin in a protective clear polymer which adds depth and luster to the finished piece."

Pinsblog

Pinsblog

YouTube - Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee & Hanif Khan (tabla)

YouTube - Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee & Hanif Khan (tabla)

American Idol - Sabrina Sloan

America Idol Season Six Contestant Sabrina Sloan was voted off yesterday. :(

YouTube - Beatboxing Flute

My dear friend Christina sent me this link. One of the coolest things I've heard in a while. It's like Doug E. Fresh meets Jethro Tull on Sesame Street.



Greg Pattillo has 4 videos posted on YouTube under the username freedomworksfilms so far with a cumulative 4.5 million view and counting. I would expect and hope to see more from him soon.

150th anniversary of Dred Scott decision

Dred Scott, born in Virginia around 1799, was the property of the Peter Blow family. Slave owners Peter and Elizabeth Blow of Virginia brought Scott to St. Louis in 1830.



Scott was bought by Dr. John Emerson, a military surgeon, who later took him to forts in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was prohibited under the Missouri Compromise. Emerson allowed Dred to marry Harriet Robinson, a slave, and bought her so the two could stay together. In 1842, Emerson and his wife returned to St. Louis.



Dred and Harriet Scott sued for their freedom in 1846, using the argument that they had previously lived in areas where slavery was prohibited by federal law. At the time, slavery was legal in Missouri. Dred Scott won in St. Louis, but the ruling was appealed and overturned by the Supreme Court on March 6, 1857.



Though they lost the Supreme Court case, Dred and Harriet Scott and their two daughters were given their freedom in 1857 by Taylor Blow, a son of the Blows that owned Scott early in his life, quickly after the decision.



Dred Scott died just 18 months later on September 17th, 1858. Taylor Blow saw to Dred Scott's burial in 1858 in the old Wesleyan Cemetery, near South Grand Boulevard and Laclede Avenue, and then had his remains moved to Calvary in 1867 because Wesleyan was being abandoned. Taylor Blow had converted to Catholicism, and the cemetery rule at the time was that whites could bury servants there. At Calvary Cemetery, the back of the tombstone erected in 1957 over Dred Scott's previously unmarked grave says "Freed from slavery by his Friend Taylor Blow."



As a side note... In 1873, Susan Blow founded the nation's first successful public kindergarten at the former Des Peres School in Carondelet. Peter and Elizabeth Blow were Susan Blow's grandparents, and her father was Henry T. Blow, a prominent businessman and namesake of Blow School and Blow Street in Carondelet.



Sources:

Taylor, Betsy. "St. Louis marks 150th anniversary of Dred Scott decision." STLtoday. 6 Mar 2007. ASSOCIATED PRESS. 7 Mar 2007 <http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/AB81D53E55CC037E862572960078B58C?OpenDocument>.

O'Neil, Tim. "Dred Scott: Heirs to history.." STLtoday. 6 Mar 2007. ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. 7 Mar 2007 <http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/35EB908B9188CA4286257296000A247A?OpenDocument>.