Kevin A. Barnes

The Milwaukee airship sightings of 1897

Kevin A. Barnes — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:03:07 +0000

In 1896 and 1897, before the first successful dirigible flight had even occurred,1 people across the U.S. reported seeing mysterious “airships” flying over major cities and rural communities alike. While in grade school, I remember reading how one of the … Read the rest of this entry →

Run in Vegas again? Certainly!

Kevin A. Barnes — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:53:44 +0000

Given that Fall is always such a boring, slow season for me,1 I decided this week that I’ll run the Las Vegas Half Marathon on December 5, 2010 as part of Team Challenge. This will be my fourth half marathon … Read the rest of this entry →

The ghosts of Milwaukee’s Third Ward

Kevin A. Barnes — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:37:47 +0000

Last evening, I finally1 took Milwaukee Ghost’s Third Ward Walking Tour. It was an entertaining, intriguing and educational 90 minutes. The tour currently includes 15 stops and covers such historical stories as the Great Third Ward Fire,2 the shipwreck of … Read the rest of this entry →

A new hope for science fiction on television?

Kevin A. Barnes — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:25:29 +0000

Those of you who know me are probably aware of how I frequently rant about SyFy (previously known as the SciFi Channel). This once promising science fiction cable network has devolved over the last several years into a dumping ground … Read the rest of this entry →

Five people I’d like to meet

Kevin A. Barnes — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:04:40 +0000

This week BizTimes.com ran an article about the “10 People who are Changing Milwaukee” and it started me thinking about the various people I’d like to meet. Before creating my list, I set a few basic ground rules: Unlike the … Read the rest of this entry →

Help Team Challenge cross the finish line in Sonoma

Kevin A. Barnes — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:34:46 +0000

The Napa-to-Sonoma half marathon is less than three weeks away, and Team Challenge needs your help! If your donations help all seven people I'm mentoring meet their fundraising goal before 11:00 PM Central Time on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, I will publicly shave my head following the 2010 Napa-to-Sonoma half marathon. Read the rest of this entry →

HTML 5, CSS3 and WordPress 3.0

Kevin A. Barnes — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:13:58 +0000

Upgrade time! Since WordPress 3.0 was recently released and I already intended to update the theme I use here on KevinABarnes.com, I decided to leverage the opportunity and also update that theme to use both HTML 5 and CSS3. What … Read the rest of this entry →

Where’s my new body?

Kevin A. Barnes — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:58:15 +0000

Many people with chronic illness seem over time to develop a love/hate relationship with their body. They understand the tiniest nuances of how it reacts to specific medications, to different foods, to various environmental factors. But ultimately if you suffer from an incurable, physically compromising illness, there end up being times when you just want to dump your entire body and start over with a healthy new one. Which of course is impossible. Or is it? Read the rest of this entry →

The Best Care in the Air

Kevin A. Barnes — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:38:25 +0000

As a long-time Midwest Airlines customer, it was very very mixed feelings that I watched yesterday's press conference announcing that the Midwest name is going away (to be assimilated into the Frontier Airlines brand). The reality is that Midwest brand didn't disappear with yesterday's press conference ... it's been gone (with the exception of the chocolate chip cookies) for many years. Read the rest of this entry →

Could a Crohn’s medication also cure Alzheimer’s?

Kevin A. Barnes — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:06:46 +0000

Two independent studies published this week (Journal of Biological Chemistry,1 PLoS One2 ) show that the drug rapamycin (also known as sirolimus) reverses the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in mice. Both studies show that rapamycin reduces the level of amyloid-beta-42 … Read the rest of this entry →