Random Gnus
Anything in the news
Now relegated to Blogblivion...Thursday, August 24, 2006
Poor Pluto
I didn’t see anything seriously wrong with the proposed definition of planets as bodies orbiting the sun and having sufficient gravity to be spherical.
Apparently that was just too controversial, as the official word is now planet Pluto no longer (via Catallarchy). The article says nothing of the official definition, or whether this is purely arbitrary. One would hope they applied a definition that would fit in any other solar system, not merely one that says “yo, you guys stay, you go, you lowly Kuiper object you; you make us want to throw up a little.”
If there’s a formal definition that is reasonable and led to the desired result, it probably has something to do with some elements of orbital plane, shape or size.
Funny thing is, there was such a furor over the expansive proposal, this will go over easily. Had they gone straight to this, there might have been as much furor the other way.
Another funny thing is, now that they’ve defined something easily identifiable by size, shape and orbit - big enough to form a sphere with its own gravity, orbiting the primary - but chosen not to call that “planet,” I wonder if there will be a word for it.
Of course, at a time like this I can’t help thinking something like “that’s no planet, that’s a space station!”
Update:
Here’s a better article, which explains how they got there. It’s not such a deviation after all, basically adding a clause to the definition much discussed in the past week. Here’s the definition from the article, with the change bolded by me:
“a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
That even makes some sense. The asteroid and Kuiper belts are debris fields, apart from Pluto’s crossing with Neptune’s orbit. The orbits of the eight major planets are clear.
So it is applicable to any solar system, and we do have a new category: dwarf planets, favored by the Snow White Mining and Terraforming Company.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Planets Galore
We finally have a definition of planet, and it’s an expansive one. Space.com calls it controversial. I don’t really see that.
It’s weird, not thinking of the nine we grew up with, and knowing that there are 12, should be 53 after a while, and may be many more. At the same time, by defining a subcategory of “plutons,” one can distinguish mostly more traditional planets from the rest, almost creating a small set similar to what we’d have had if the definition had gone the other direction and evicted Pluto.
For those who want the definition without reading either article:
“A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet.”
Thus our moon is not a “planet,” though it’s often been called that because of its size and its ever so slow drift out of Earth’s gravitational control, because it orbits a planet, not the sun. Thus Ceres is a planet because it has enough gravity and orbits the sun.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Unhappy Birthday
To Fidel Castro. Die already, you tyrannical bastard.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Rest In Peace Susan Butcher
Dave Schuler has the sad news.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Still struggling…
To believe that Landis is stupid enough to have done this intentionally. Something about this whole thing just doesn’t make sense to me.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Egads.
You know, I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t mention the weather again. But yuck:
Dewpoints are expected to be in the mid-seventies on that hundred degree day. We’re expecting to get up early, retreat to somewhere air conditioned, and stay there as late as possible. Tomorrow and Thursday, too.
Yikes.
(BTW, those temps that we’re cooling down to (yay!) at the end of the week? At and barely below average for this point. We’ve already passed our average hottest day of summer, which is something like a whopping 83 degrees and a week ago. This is why there’s not so much air conditioning as there might be in these parts. I’ll be shocked if there aren’t deaths on Wednesday.)
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Frontier Calling
I found this piece by Peggy Noonan on Ken Lay and how the world is different than it once was fascinating not because of the sympathy it exudes or the excellent point it makes, but because of what it says about a lack of frontiers.
Which might not entirely solve the problem, as it’s one of mass communication as much as one of nowhere to go, but we always can use that place to go. It’s in our nature. And not merely for obfuscating past reputations, but for “dropping out” or making a stand for principle.
When there’s debate about the presence of too many eggs in one basket, the probability and extent of civilization-devastating, even species-ending, disasters, and the costs and benefits of acting with a long view toward such probabilities approaching one, that’s entirely beside the point. Exploration and migration are in our nature. Not for everyone, on an individual basis, but for many, and for all the more when the times cry out for it.
The time to start is when that cry is yet a murmer. Can you hear it?
Friday, June 30, 2006
Oh Rubbish!
All the tenants in my office building have been notified that, effective tomorrow, about 90% of everything that was previously thrown in the dumpster may no longer be put there. Dumpsters are normally the last bastion of being able to throw away anything, but it looks like, unless some easy recycling option is made available, I will henceforth need to bring home most of the trash generated in the office. Except… we’ve received no notice from the town indicating changes, but the regulations the waste disposal company that handle the office dumpster are citing apply to all solid waste facilities in the state. Hmmm…
We already knew certain things were banned from disposal, like anything with a CRT. However, now all the plain white paper can’t be thrown out. Cans that have no deposits. Glass jars and bottles. Anything metal; no more throwing away dead power supplies. It would seem to apply to dead mice and keyboards, too. Most plastic containers. Most cardboard. Which means, since most of the corrugated I throw out is on behalf of the big client, I sure hope they come up with a way of handling it. They have previously had no recycling of any kind in place. I certainly haven’t.
Oddly, microwave ovens are about the only exception to the “white goods” clause, which is one of the parts that seems to be nothing new. I would think they would count somehow under the excluded metals, though.
It will be interesting to see what people in the building do and how seriously this is taken by everyone involved, including the waste disposal company. The notice is so last minute, nobody could possibly be prepared for it.
Guess I ought to put out any trash I can find before I leave here today.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Rest In Peace Jim Baen
Via Glenn, the news that Jim Baen has died following his recent stroke.
It’s a sad day in the world of science fiction.
David Drake remembers his friend.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Rest In Peace My Friend
Today we shed tears for a friend and stranger. An odd thing, losing people online, yet no less poignant. Sometimes we know them better than family, and of course we choose to know them.
Rob Smith, Acidman, has died, leaving a gaping hole in the blogosphere and our hearts, and our wish one day to meet him in person unfulfilled.
It’s not entirely unexpected. It’s clear he’d been in rough shape. I’d fervently hoped for more time and much happiness to fill it. Alas, it was not to be, as it so often isn’t.
Rob was a major mover in getting my original blog noticed as well and quickly as it did, for which I will always be grateful. His writing could be, often as not was, brilliant. He dared to be abrasive, even if all that meant was honest. His heart of gold shone through any amount of acid talk. I will forever have the imagined memory of visiting him with our kids, of him playing with them, of them being utterly taken with him. I fully expect that’s how it would have been, because that’s Rob.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
The Best Rained-On Plans
My poor mother has the worst luck planning big events.
In the summer of 2004, she planned a “family reunion” that primarily doubled as a “wedding reception” for Deb and I, since we expressly wanted to avoid such things.
That had to be moved to the parish house of the church at the last minute, due to substantial rain and gloom. It also wasn’t something that could be rescheduled, as my cousin’s family was up from Texas.
Then there was Easter.
Last year the big Easter egg hunt never happened, if I recall correctly. Or maybe it took almost until June. Or maybe that was the year before.
This year it was delayed by rain two weeks. Easy to reschedule, for “some people have long range plans for almost every weekend” values of easy, but not possible to move inside.
So now we’re coming up on 90 years since June 24, 1916, so were we going to have a big birthday party for my grandmother on the 18th or the 25th? I was thinking the 18th, because at the time it was close enough to know it’d be perfect, if rather hot, weather, even though the weekend of the birthday might be more logical. My mother decided on the 25th, which was technically more logical and gave more preparation time.
Predictably enough, here’s the weather (emphasis added):
So I have no idea what’s going to happen. My first thought was “aw jeez, it’ll have to be postponed, but the next weekend is the holiday so that probably won’t work.” Then I remembered the parish house, but that depends on it not being used for anything else at the time. Or some other, similar place.
The 2nd would actually work for me, if it’s postponed. Originally I though I would be deploying new servers that weekend. All of it. Four non-stop days and hoping that was enough. Which may be what it takes, not counting advance prep and testing or trial run work. Since I had to wait for us to have a meeting about that and broader computer issues, it’ll have to be done on one of the other 3 or 4 day weekends later in July or August. Oh wait… I just doubt it’ll work for enough people to go with it. So yeah, it makes far more sense to find cover than to defer. I’ll have to call my mother and see what she has in mind or if she’s even noticed the forecast.
What luck.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Things that make me feel all warm and happy, #67839
The move to make the Fluffernutter the official state sandwich of Massachusetts.
Oh, hell yes!
Monday, June 19, 2006
This is just begging for a nut joke of some sort, but I’m tired.
You know, I’m less shocked by the presence of Fluff in the Mass. schools than I am by the presence of peanut butter. I didn’t know there were any schools left where it hadn’t been banned.
The sacred status of the Fluffernutter is something I learned about after moving here. A New Englandism, to be sure. Sadie, of course, has already had and loved one. I’m not so much on them but I’m trying to learn before they throw me out of the state over it. I can’t imagine they’d actually throw it out of the schools in a statewide, organized fashion.
Anyway, the last time I checked jelly was pretty much fruit-flavored sugar, so WTF is the problem here, really? Far as I can tell, there isn’t one.
Via Radley Balko.
Monday, June 12, 2006
The Girl is a Force of Nature
So did y’all see the storm names for this year?
Valerie is on the list. LOL!
(As is Debby but I’ve never, never spelled it that way so it doesn’t count. Heh.)
(Oh, and Michael’s there, too. Yikes.)
Friday, June 09, 2006
Top Cities Through History
The largest cities through history is a fascinating look, via Chris O’Donnell here.
Note how long it took before Europe started showing up, and how weird it seems for a city in Sri Lanka to have been on one of the historical top ten lists. Heck, how odd is seems to see Philadelphia on the list for 1900. That wasn’t so long ago.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
The Genetics of Business
This is fascinating, if not surprising: Genetics Causes Half Of Entrepreneurship
When I read “nearly half—48 percent—of an individual’s propensity to become self-employed is genetic,” I think of my stepmother exclaiming “there’s so much of your father in you!” He has spent most of his working life self-employed, and I have been stubbornly persisting in remaining self-employed as well, despite the drawbacks.
Earworm
I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have an earwormy song pop spontaneously into my head and play over and over.
Hail Special Forces! Al-Zarqawi is dead! Ding dong the wicked witch is dead.
As seen pretty much everywhere, but Dean’s post is a fine place to start, and of course Glenn and Wizbang are all over it. I actually heard it first from Deb, who heard it first from the President.
It feels like one of those big turning points, you know?
Sunday, June 04, 2006
We Don’t Need No Constitution, We All Prefer Thought Control
Via John Cole via Radley Balko, here is the latest case coming in a couple years to a Supreme Court near you. That should be completely unnecessary. It’s a cut and dried, cast in stone, no brainer case in which idiot California justices ruled 6-1 to castrate the Fourth Amendment.
Yup. Now if cops suspect you’ve been drinking and then driving, or can even pretend to suspect that, they can break and enter without a warrant, drag you from your bed, extract and test your blood.
Tell me the cops will never do this just because they can. Tell me they will only use it in hot-pursuit style, arriving at your house not long after you, having followed your sleepy drunken ass home from working late the bar.
Yeah, right.
So in a couple years we can look forward to the Supremes wisely correcting this clear Constitutional pillage, just as they did with Kelo.
Oh wait…
And hey, since I mentioned Kelo, let’s recap:
Kelo-related posts:
Will The Supremes And Bad Lawyering Perpetrate A Constitutional Travesty?
United States Constitution, 1788 - 2005: Promise Unkept
Bad Precedent
Additional Kelo Fallout Thoughts
Will the Money Be Followed?
Kelo and Raich: The Root of the Supreme Court Problem?
Olek V. New London Case
Kelo and "Fair" Value
Boycotting Can Be Hard
Becker and Posner on Kelo and Eminent Domain
Kelo, IOLTA and Drugs - Oh My
Sama on Kelo, Disney, and Boston's West End Tragedy
Was Kelo The Lost Battle That Won The War?
You Thought The Kelo Outcome Couldn't Be Worse?
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Windows Vista Review
Kurt Hutchinson at Ars Technica has an excellent, detailed review, with lots of pictures, of Windows Vista Beta 2.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Now That’s A Cool Memorial
Dale Amon reports that bits of aluminum from the World Trade Center have been roving Mars for two years.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Sometimes I’m happy to be short.
I didn’t have far to fall when I made like Bruce and fell right over:
Give me a minute here to pick myself up off the floor.
Via cbs4Boston.com:
BREAKING NEWSThe Mass. House has voted down the primary seat belt law.
Damned if they don’t get it right once in a while.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Freddie and the Soul Patrol
Freddie Garrity, of Freddie and the Dreamers, has died at 69. I am familiar with the catchy song “Do The Freddie,” but was unaware of the background:
It was on an American television show that Mr Garrity was asked about his stage antics.
“It’s a dance,” he said, “It’s called the Freddie.”
Within weeks, the band was back in the charts with a song called Do The Freddie.
Naturally this made me think of pending American Idol season 5 winner Taylor Hicks (you could say he has it all sewn up). Perhaps he should come out with a similar song; “Do The Taylor, Woooh!”
All joking aside, I’m telling you now rest in peace Freddie.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Fox News Spam
Has anyone out there who blogs figured out what the deal is with the Fox News comment spam?
I delete it as soon as it appears, so you wouldn’t have seen it here. What happens is someone comes along and leaves an unrelated comment on a recent post, saying to check out and linking a new news article at Fox News.
The question is whether someone does this to make Fox look like scum, or whether someone at Fox actually has intentionally employed people to do this. Either way, I’d like it to stop, but the latter would be particularly bad.
Update:
Ed Cone addressed the Fox News comment spam issue. Brian Lewis at Fox News tell him they are not behind it. Or at least it is unknown by the Fox “communications honcho,” which is possible and they could still be the genuine source.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Money Tree Very Pretty
It seemed for a couple weeks that gas prices had stabilized. It was $2.86 for several days at the generally low price stations near work, with $2.89 being about the consensus norm, and sightings as low as $2.74 during that time. I think the high was about $2.94. What it looked like is the blend switching had all been done, and if it wasn’t going down much or at all, it wasn’t going up either.
As of yesterday, $2.99 became the apparent new normal. The self-serve, low cost station near the rotary was at $3.03, becoming the first place I’d ever seen $3+ for regular. The low was $2.94 at another traditionally cheap station. Finally, I saw on my way home that the little full-serve, generic station around the corner, which is often as cheap as anywhere, had gone up to $3.10. Wow. I didn’t go by the stations near the office yesterday, but the other day one of them had gone from $2.86 to $2.91 to $2.99, and the other one had gone from $2.86 to $2.89, but not higher yet. I filled the Sentra with the $2.89 stuff and was sad to see that even though it’s running better and seems to have shaken most of the ill effects of the bad gas it got months back, it didn’t even get 20 MPG. I miss it getting 28 - 30 MPG reliably! Then I spiked it with more dry gas, plus some carb and fuel injector cleaner chemicals. Maybe that’ll help.
Maybe this is the Memorial Day increase, but it seems a little soon for that. I’d be eating my words right now, if I had posted about gas prices stabilizing as I planned to a few days ago.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
I just love the sound of Steve Verdon ranting in the morning.
The topic this time? The destruction of playgrounds by the freaky safety nanny idiots. Steve and I don’t always agree (though this time we do!), but he can eviscerate a stupid argument with the best of them. Enjoy.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Friday afternoon linkfest
...wherein I say a little about a lot.
Chan hits the nail right on the head, re: the Moussaoui sentence:
To reiterate, we have done far worse than kill him. We have made him a non-entity, a living ghost who will quickly fade out of the the public’s memory. And then he will die, as the presiding judge said, quoting T.S.Eliot, “with a whimper.â€?
I can think of no better fate for him.
Amen.
...
Disease isn’t caused by global warming; it’s caused by environmentalism! Now there’s a healthy point of view.
...
The WTC memorial? Completely out of control. That’s billion with a B, people. Yikes.
...
Via The J-Walk Blog, an addictive stats page: StateMaster. Who doesn’t need to know which state has the highest number of steel roller coasters per capita?
...
The California legislature is apparently really, really bored. Don’t they have a state to run or something? OTOH, the state is probably better off with these goofballs distracted from doing any real harm.
...
Maybe the single most annoying thing about pregnancy and having an infant (’cause it only gets worse, oh yes) is the way that it makes you public property. I never got hassled by a barista, but I’m really uncomfortable with drawing attention, and everybody looks at the pregnant woman/cute little baby/wild-ass toddler. It weirds me out to suddenly be a target of random small talk again, especially when I’d just finally gotten used to not making random small talk.
...
Will Saletan on the soda wars:
The reason I expected the companies to lose this round is that it’s easy to wage moral crusades when the only freedoms in the way are those of children. Americans have long been driven by two deep longings. The first is to be left alone. The second is to tell other people what to do. On most moral issues—abortion, porn, video games, alcohol, tobacco, guns—the easiest way out is to inflict our piety on minors. All the righteous satisfaction, none of the libertarian backlash. Great taste, less filling.
That sums up a large chunk of our cultural “issues,” doesn’t it?
...
And now Sadie’s gone quiet, so I’m off to find out what she’s up to. Have a great weekend!
Monday, May 01, 2006
Ha! I am not a freak after all! Or at least not in that way…
Somebody’s moving sort of slow at WHDH today, so I don’t have a link, but they just ran a story about those prepackaged salads giving people E. Coli.
*Now* can we quit making fun of me for washing vegetables that claim to be prewashed? 
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Fed shows signs of living in my reality. Story “at some point this year”…
Oh, how I hope the Fed *does* decide that they’re done with the interest rate hikes for a little while after the May meeting. It’s so damned depressing to watch your credit cards cost more every few months. Makes it that much tougher to get the damned things paid off, too. Be nice to truck along toward getting that done at the same speed for a little bit, you know?
(BTW, the first person who tells me it’s my own fault for being in debt and to suck it up because its my just reward for being an idiot is going to get smacked with a packet of ramen. Life happens. Get over it.)
(Yes, I’m cranky. Why do you ask?)
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Meanwhile, they’re talking about slapping some extra restrictions on teens.
I knew the elderly have a hell of a lobby and all, but only in Massachusetts would that somehow translate to a discount on auto insurance.
Good God.
Monday, April 24, 2006
If only we could move it closer and *really* ruin Teddy’s view…
I only agree with the New York Times once every 2.3 years, so I have to note it when it happens. Today, they’re bashing the sneaky little amendment that would kill the Cape Wind project. Good for them.
