Tuesday, 30 October, 2007. 12:00:00 PMThese two idiots manage to have about five minutes of discussion without actually
saying anything that's true.
Friday, 26 October, 2007. 12:58:25 AMComet Holmes is spectacular again tonight. The coma is developing
distinctly from the nucleus. Last night the coma was not distinguishable
from the nucleus. It now has the appearance of a planetary nebula-sized
object within a somewhat larger halo. It's still bright too, magnitude
1 or 2, easily visible in Perseus under a full moon.
Thursday, 25 October, 2007. 12:37:54 AMOne more thing about Comet Holmes: it looks pinkish to my eyes.
Thursday, 25 October, 2007. 12:05:13 AMI just went out to see Comet Holmes, which is causing quite a commotion on
the AAS mailing list. It's brightened from about magnitute 17 to magnitude 2 in
just one day, which indicates some kind of explosion or something. I checked it
out in my Astroscan, and it looks like a planetary nebula in my scope. It's the weirdest
looking comet I've ever seen.
Wednesday, 24 October, 2007. 01:46:18 PMI really have to rewrite my website from scratch. I've been using a set of Python
scripts to maintain it for the last few years, since January 2001 I think, and they're
really starting to show their age. I've been resisting a database oriented solution, but
it might be time to dump the pre-generated static pages in favor of dynamically generated
pages. There are almost 3000 pages on this website that my script maintains, and though it's
done a good job for almost 7 years, it's time for something new I think.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2007. 11:40:51 PMThe Great Stink in 1858 was an event that brought public sanitation to the forefront of
city infrastructure. Basically, the Thames filled up with poo, London
smelled worse than the inside of an outhouse, and Parliament spent three
million pounds to build a shiny new modern sewer system for the city.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2007. 09:42:43 PMWe saw the Space Station and the Space Shuttle successfully. We even
saw an Iridium flare at 8:37 PM, magnitude -8.
Tuesday, 23 October, 2007. 08:50:41 PMKristiana and I are going outside right now to see the space station
make a pass over Austin at almost 7:56 PM. At 2:07 PM, the Space Shuttle
Discovery will be following right behind. There is a pass tomorrow night
too, with the station and the shuttle separated by only a few seconds as the
distance between them narrows. Both are going to be bright, -2.3 for the station
and -1.7 for the shuttle. Both brighter than Jupiter.
Monday, 22 October, 2007. 10:53:53 AMThe Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is the finest example of post-singularity fiction
ever written, and is one of my favorite books. It's the only book that I've taken the time to read
three times. The Dune novels are my other most-favorite books, and I've read those only twice.
A warning - this book is disgusting. If you get through chapter one, you'll most likely finish the
book. About half of people attempting to read the book stop in chapter one, because they are
creeped out, weirded out, grossed out, and so forth. It's a mature book for mature people, as it
covers mature themes.
Thursday, 18 October, 2007. 08:44:22 PMThis law firm says that
you can't link to their website. Nonsense, I say.
Friday, 12 October, 2007. 02:51:49 PM
More than half of all Americans want equal treatment for gay people. It's good to
see that the immoral religious views of homosexuality are getting the cold shoulder. There's
a serious disconnect between the obviously right and fair thing to do and the obviously
immoral attitudes that comservatives have towards homosexuals.
Thursday, 11 October, 2007. 11:16:40 AMThe New Republic has a really
good article about the psychology of cussing.
Monday, 08 October, 2007. 10:44:16 PMThis is how the men to whom the duty of
interrogating Nazi prisoners fell chose to discharge their duty. For the
first time in 60 years, the interrogations of German military personnel
after WWII and the powerful torture methods they used are revealed. The
success of torturing Nazi prisoners justifies treating prisoners in Gitmo
harshly.
Just kidding. They got more information out of Nazis by playing chess
and serving them steak than we could hope to get out of our prisoners
through the un-American practice of torture.
Monday, 08 October, 2007. 12:44:38 PMThe NYT has an
excellent op-ed on the fact that the United States is a secular nation,
not a Xtian nation.
Monday, 01 October, 2007. 11:26:34 AMToday marks the 4th anniversary of the acquisition of Sector 7 by IBM.