Celebrating the 17th

Don't you think the blue and gold chairs go well with the rug?

Today is February 17th and today Barack Obama will be in Denver signing the "Stimulus Package" into law. He's chosen a very strange venue to do so:

The bill-signing, an unusual event outside of Washington, will be Tuesday at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in City Park... "This is like a dream," said George Sparks, director of the museum." - Denver Post

 

 Funny, neither Sparks nor the Secret Service know why the museum was selected. Not to worry; while Obama is at the museum perhaps he'll make time to check out these exhibits:

Ancient Egyptian religion and NAZCA NASA, eh? How odd. Where have we seen that combo before? Here's a map to the museum if you'd like to visit there on your summer vacation. If you're coming from the west, just turn on to the Denver City Park driveway from 17th Ave. The museum is on 2001 Colorado Blvd. Take some time to check out the Denver Airport while you're there.

 

After visiting Denver, Obama travels to Phoenix. You know, on the 33rd parallel. Am I hallucinating all of this? 

UPDATE: Be sure to check out the Life on Mars online exhibit at the Denver museum site. 

 UPDATE II: Always the Sun, Dept.- Several readers informed me that the media is reporting that this site was chosen for its rooftop solar array. I guess getting power from the Sun is part of the "Green" agenda (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). 

 UPDATE III: Loren Coleman brings some more museumy weirdness to The Copycat Effect.

UPDATE IV: Don't forget the Denver flag, or the seal.

Or the Gus Grissom connection, either. And StrangeEye posted a link to a Denver Airport video.

UPDATE V: For an excellent analysis of the Astrotheological origins of 17, read this excerpt from Echoes of the Ancient Skies: The Astronomy of Lost Civilizations. 

 UPDATE VI: Birds and Planes, redux: Plane survives collision with vulture in Fort Lauderdale.

 

Bonus factoid: Nekhbet was the vulture goddess of Egypt and was part of the udjat, or Eye of Horus amulet.

 

UPDATE VII: Jake has a new post up with the new Days Inn logo. Can you guess how many rays there are in that sunrise? 

 UPDATE VIII: Solar-power firm fired up about stimulus

The company, founded in 2007, currently has 175 employees. Without the stimulus, Noronha said, AVA Solar is on track to create 420 new jobs by the end of this year.

AVA Solar currently operates on $175 million in U.S.-based private venture capital. In 2007 the company also received $3 million in seed money from the U.S. Department of Energy.

UPDATE IX: Oh, come on- 17 companies adopt micro USB phone charger standard?

The target for transition to micro USB -- which is smaller than the more commonly used mini USB connector but has already been adopted in a few handsets, including the BlackBerry Storm -- is to have "the majority of all new mobile phone models" supporting the new connector by January 1, 2012. As well, the chargers are set to be designed to use half as much power while operating on standby.

They're just trying to drive me crazy. 

 UPDATE X: Barack to send 17K troops to Afghanistan:

WASHINGTON — Defense and congressional officials say President Barack Obama has approved an increase in U.S. forces for the flagging war in Afghanistan. The Obama administration is expected to announce on Tuesday or Wednesday that it will send one additional Army brigade and an unknown number of Marines to Afghanistan this spring. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the total is about 17,000 troops.

Wow, quite a day for coincidences, isn't it? 

UPDATE XI: And the hits just keep a-comin'! Check out the comments section for more synchitude.

UPDATE XII: On this date in 1965 JPL's Ranger 8 lunar probe was sent to scout the landing site for Apollo 11.

Time of launch? 17:05:00 UTC. 

Perhaps to commemorate the 365th anniversary of the death of Giordano Bruno? 

 UPDATE XIII: Speaking of Masonic Martyrs, James catches this story: UK 'eyes' to hunt for other Earths:

"This mission has been designed very carefully, such that a null result is as important as finding planets," said Michael Bicay, director of science at the US space agency's Ames Research Center in California. Bicay was speaking at the Astrotech Space Operations plant in Titusville, Florida, where the telescope, named Kepler, is being prepared for launch.

Ames again. Check out the story's time-stamp: 

17:47 GMT, Tuesday, 17 February 2009. 

Astrotech is in an interesting neighborhood:

Take Grissom Parkway to White Drive to Chaffe Drive to Shepherd Drive. 

 UPDATE XIV: According to MSNBC, this was another 17-minute speech. 

 UPDATE XV: GM is getting in on the zany 17 hijinks:

DETROIT – General Motors Corp., presenting a dire outlook for the future, said Tuesday it may need $30 billion in total government financing to weather the economic downturn and would cut 47,000 jobs worldwide and shutter five more U.S. factories in a massive restructuring plan. The automaker is already surviving on $13.4 billion in federal loans and said in a plan submitted to the Treasury Department that it would seek an additional $16.6 billion if economic conditions worsen, but it could achieve profitability in two years and fully repay its loans by 2017.

2017. 47-30=17. 13+4=17. 

Round 16.6 to the nearest natural number and you get?

UPDATE XVI: Apropos of absolutely nothing, it was revealed today that actor Terrance Howard was arrested for domestic abuse 8 years ago. 

The date? 9/17/01. His birthday? March 11. 

 UPDATE XVII: Derek Gilbert checks in with two crucial tidbits:

Today is a rare exact conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in Aquarius, the first since 1973. The next one won’t be for another 24 years. (Astrologers have already declared that we’ve now officially entered the Age of Aquarius.) At exactly 3:17 Eastern, President Obama, new protagonist of the Camelot mythos, made reference to John F. Kennedy. March 17th — 3/17 — is the traditional date of Osiris’ death. JFK is an analog of Osiris, the “dying god”.

Obama also mentioned the Space program in the same sentence.