Monday, 29 October, 2001. 10:34:14 PMTake a look at
Jolene Blalock. She even
looks good as
Sub Commander T'Pol.
Monday, 29 October, 2001. 09:44:05 PMWil Wheaton
has an
interview on Slashdot.
Sunday, 28 October, 2001. 06:56:01 PMYesterday Alex and I went to
West Cave Preserve,
a beautiful area off the Pedernales River. The preserve is essentially a box
canyon, with a small wet cave located at the end. The closed end of the
canyon has steep walls and rock overhangs. Inside the cave, the ceiling is
covered with fossilized shellfish.
Wednesday, 24 October, 2001. 02:28:41 AMAround midnight some kids stopped in front of Jack's house down the street
in their pickup truck. The passenger grabbed his garbage can and they took off
dragging it. After going half a block they let it go. It just slid along the
pavement, but didn't spill. I retrieved it and put it back in front of
Jack's house.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2001. 10:38:14 PMThe search engine AltaVista has not updated its indexes since July. The
company is also losing popularity very quickly. The reason? Poor search
results. The company was not quick to remove porn from their listings.
Almost every search was polluted with pornographic sites that deceptively
included popular search terms in their text. AltaVista also sold rankings
in the search results. That was not what the customers wanted, so they
left.
The best search engine out there has been
Google for a long time.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2001. 10:28:23 PMMars Odyssey is going into orbit around Mars right now. I'm watching the
telemetry readouts live on the NASA web page.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2001. 04:12:56 PMMy observer's report that I submitted to the AAS e-mail list is going to
be published in next month's Sideral Times.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2001. 12:15:26 PMBackground on the reasons why Seton stopped providing reproductive services:
The "hospital within a hospital" plan was provoked by the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops , which in June revised its "Ethical and
Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services" to prohibit Catholic
health-care providers such as Seton from managing hospitals providing tubal
ligations, vasectomies, sterilization, and other types of reproductive services.
From the Austin Chronicle, Aug 31. 2001.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2001. 12:05:30 PMHere in Austin, Seton Hospital has a contract with the city to manage the
Brackinridge hospital, the city's only public hospital. Seton is a
Catholic organization. The problem is that being a Catholic organization,
they are not providing reproductive services to the residents as a
regular public hospital would. Luckily, our city council has some intelligence.
They are various proposals on the board, including taking over all maternity
services from Seton, creating a "hospital within a hospital". Since Seton
is in violation of their contract, they will have to pay for it. If Seton
commits further violations of their contract, then new providers may be
found to replace them.
This is the kind of mess that can happen when government contracts with
religious organizations for vital services.
Monday, 22 October, 2001. 11:14:17 PMA poll shows that 40% of Americans are opening their mail carefully because of
fears of Anthrax. Just for the record, I am continuing to open my mail
recklessly, just as I have always done.
Monday, 22 October, 2001. 02:54:56 PMPathological marriage celebrated by the Pope.
The Catholic Church seems to think that a married couple who slept in separate
beds and lived like a "brother and a sister" for 26 years is something to be
happy about. Something is seriously wrong with that picture.
Monday, 22 October, 2001. 02:31:07 PMThe Taliban has accused the United States of genocide. Will somebody please
buy those illiterates a dictionary?
Monday, 22 October, 2001. 02:37:45 AMToday was the last day that Mom and Dad are visiting. They leave tomorrow at
9AM. We had dim sum for lunch, and then went to Central Market and bought
groceries for dinner. We made pot stickers and veggetarian egg drop soup.
Friday, 19 October, 2001. 04:16:35 PMYesterday Mom, Dad, and I went to see Enchanted Rock. We all made it to the top and took a lot of photos. After that we went to the Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg. That museum was a lot nicer than I expected it to be. They had
a Japanese mini-sub (the one captured at Pearl), a Bat radar guided bomb, and a B-25.
Friday, 19 October, 2001. 04:16:18 PMI just saw another T-38 fly over my house, towards the East.
Tuesday, 16 October, 2001. 04:52:57 AMObserver's report, as submitted to the AAS mailing list:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Observer's Report, Saturday, October 13th, 2001
When I was in high school in Michigan, I was a member of the Grand Rapids
Amateur Astronomical Association. The club maintained a 12.5" Newtonian
reflector in an observatory. Back in the early 1980's, that was a very
large telescope, and it was always a treat to use it to observe very faint
deep sky objects. One object that I clearly recall seeing through that
telescope was the Veil Nebula in Cygnus. An older member of the club
showed it to me, explaining that this object was going to be extremely
difficult to see because it was spread out and had a low surface brightness.
I looked through the eyepiece and could only see the veil with averted vision.
Looking directly at it yielded nothing at all. That experience of seeing a
difficult object was thrilling, and it remained with me all these years.
On Saturday night after most of the visitors had left, I wandered into the
observatory and took a look through the Harlan Smith telescope, which
happened to be pointed at the Veil. Instead of being a difficult object,
the veil was large and bright in the eyepiece. I realized that the type and
aperture of the Harlan Smith was the same as the only other telescope that I
viewed the Veil through, so the only other difference could only be the light
pollution and seeing. The observatory in Michigan was located only 30 miles
from a large city and had some light in the sky. Our site at the COE is far
darker. If I observe a new object through a large telescope I usually try
to see what the object looks like through my 4.25" Astroscan. In most cases
I am surprised at what I can see with that small scope, and this was no
exception. The Veil showed up at 16X as a bright curved nebula. I wasn't
sure that what I was looking at was the Veil, so I went back into the
observatory and got ???? (I didn't get your name) to verify it.
The lesson that I learned is to never discount the ability of small telescopes
to see objects that might be (incorrectly) regarded as difficult. I'd been
poking around Cygnus and Casseopeia all night, looking at all the beautiful
open clusters that live in those constellations. I'd never even thought to
try the veil, thinking that I wouldn't see even a trace of it in my small
scope. Some objects might be difficult on some nights, and ridiculously
easy on others. From now on, anytime Cygnus is above the horizon, I'll be
checking on the Veil before I look at anything else.
The other highlight of the night was NGC 253 and NGC 288 in Sculptor. 253 is
the Silver Coin galaxy, and is definitely one of my new favorites. 288 is a
nice globular that's less than 2 degrees away. And that brings me to my
second lesson of the night. Where I grew up in Michigan, I never could see
Sagittarius because of the tall trees in my yard. That limitation has become
an unconscious one over the years, sort of a filter that automatically
determines what's possible and what is not. Reading through Sky and
Telescope, any mention of an object in a constellation like Phoenix is
automatically filtered out. Why bother with something that I can't even
see? Well, that same person who confirmed the Veil for me pointed the
Harlan Smith at NGC 253 and I was amazed when I looked at it. First of all,
the galaxy is beautiful, with an astonishing amount of dust in it. Second of
all, the galaxy was in Sculptor, which I never considered looking at before.
That was a Southern constellation, after all. I forget that I am now living
in the South - even the sky is bigger here in Texas!
Tuesday, 16 October, 2001. 12:00:54 AMCNN reports that duct tape and plastic sheeting are in demand right now
because some people want to be able to seal off a room in their house in
the event of a bio- or chemical terrorist attack.
A future news story will no doubt detail the ironic deaths of a family
otherwise well prepared to survive 30 days under the worst conditions,
suffocated to death in their bathroom.
Sunday, 14 October, 2001. 02:02:20 PMThere was a star party last night. The highlights were the Veil shown
clearly in my Astroscan, and an amazing galaxy in Sculptor -
NGC 253,
as well as a large nearby globular -
NGC 288.
This is NGC 253 and NGC 288 together.
Friday, 12 October, 2001. 01:23:23 AMThe metal band Anthrax might be changing their name because of the Anthrax
scares in Florida. The lead singer supposedly has a supply of antibiotics
so he won't die an ironic death.
Thursday, 11 October, 2001. 03:39:08 AMMy parents are visiting next week.
Monday, 08 October, 2001. 05:26:05 PM"[...]Whoever kills another person . . .
it will be written in his book of deeds
as if he had killed all mankind
and whoever will save a life shall be regarded
as if he saved the life of all mankind."
(Verse 32, Chapter 5 - Quran al Kareem)
Monday, 08 October, 2001. 01:59:25 PMToday I saw a T-38 fly over my house, and yesterday I rescued a Tarantula that
was trying to cross the road.
Wednesday, 03 October, 2001. 02:50:20 PMKathleen Parker wrote an insulting column in the October 1st issue of USA Today.
Here are two excerpts with my comments from USA Today.
I claim fair use under copyright law:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
God, country gain fragile new toehold
USA Today; Arlington, Va.; Oct 1, 2001; Kathleen Parker;
One can't help notice the silence of atheists these days. Suddenly "God" is
everywhere, as ubiquitous as American flags, spreading -- as Dan Rather said in
a spasm of simile-rapture to describe rumors following the Sept. 11 attacks --
"like mildew in a damp basement."
War has that effect. There are no atheists in foxholes, we've always known.
There were none in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, we can guess. And now
there are none anywhere to be found. America today is about God and country,
but then it always has been. We just lost track.
- my comments
-1) Insulting atheist victims and veterans is completely out of line. A
- person who lives their life by reason and rationality will not give them
- up for superstition just because they might die.
-2) America today is about religious freedom, not about nebulous feelgood
- statements like "God and country". This is a great nation, with great
- principles, not a frickin' pep rally where cheerleaders yell "yea God,
- yea country".
-3) Atheists have been low-key because this is a time of mourning. Now that
- the reverence has been so rudely broken, it's time to say that it wasn't
- atheists that destroyed the WTC, it was intolerant fundamentalists like
- Ms. Parker that cannot find it in their brains to live and let live.
- Really, who else but someone who was truly deep in the dogma would throw
- away their one and only life in exchange for an afterlife with 72 virgins?
- An atheist would not be fooled with such promises.
These thoughts have struck me over and over, beginning with the memorial service
at the National Cathedral. As the audience sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic
-- joined by yours truly back home in the family room (confess: you did it,
too) -- it occurred to me that my son doesn't even know the words.
- my comments
-1) *snicker* The lyric sheets were in plain sight. The hymnal in the
- National Cathedral has that song in it.
-2) This strawman argument is typical
- of most of her column, allowing me to trim large sections of it. The rest
- of the column is more of the same drivel, with more insults directed
- at atheists.
I sent a letter to the editor of USA Today in response to the column as well.
Here it is, as sent:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
via web form:
Dear Editor,
Kathleen Parker wrote a column on October 1st that I thought was completely
out of line. In it she makes some absurd statements about atheists, and
claims that atheists have been silent since Sept. 11th. First, she owes
an apology to the atheists in the World Trade Center, for implying that
they would abandon their life values for superstition in the last few
minutes of their life. Second, she owes an apology to atheist veterans
for the same thing. Third, she owes an apology to atheist Americans who
have been proudly flying their American flags and supporting their neighbors,
while having to brush off various religious slogans.
Perhaps Ms. Parker wants to know why atheists have been silent. It is
because atheists have respected the mourning period for the 6000+ dead.
Now that some are suggesting that it is time to laugh, I also think it's
time for someone to tell the truth about Sept. 11th. It wasn't atheists
that destroyed the WTC; it was a group of fundamentalist believers,
not unlike Ms. Parker, that cannot find it in their brains to have a
sense of decency and tolerance for their fellow human beings.
Tuesday, 02 October, 2001. 11:07:46 PMI found a package called
swig that
automatically wraps C functions with the glue required to embed them into a
scripting language. Supported languages include Perl, Python, Tcl, guile, Java,
and others.
Tuesday, 02 October, 2001. 04:08:23 AMI got news today that a very small project in Milwaukee fell through. I'm
hoping to get back to work very soon. One particularly big project should
come through any day now. They need 15 programmers for several months, which
should get me though past the end of the year. It's likely that I will
become a full-time Sector 7 employee during that project. Contracting has been
a lot of fun, but when the economy gets rough it's nice to hitch your wagon
to a good horse.
Tuesday, 02 October, 2001. 03:23:22 AMI wrote the code in my website scripts to generate major website sections.
I'm adding sections that describe the website, and a section that describes
all the computers that I have on my home network.