Geocaching will get easier soon, with the introduction of the next generation of Global Positioning System satellites. The latest satellite was launced Sunday from Cape Canaveral.
9/30/05 Update: Hahahahaha…whoops. “GPS” now replacing the old “GSP” which was in the title. Thanks, Jim, for pointing that out. WordPress needs a spellcheck.
Cobb County, Georgia, is once again regarded as a top ten place! The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that The Campaign to Defend the Constitution has rated Cobb County number two on it’s “Islands of Ignorance” list.
[Use Bug Me Not to see the story without registering]
You can see the whole top ten list at www.defconamerica.org. Suprisingly enough, Dover, PA is numero uno.
As a resident of Cobb County, but not a father of schoolchildren, I find it difficult to get really worked up about this. They went to court, they lost the sticker suit. The stickers have been removed. ‘Nuff said. I personally think that they were a bunch of bone-heads to put the stickers on in the first place. For my detailed opinion regarding the stickers, see my blog post concerning them.
Also see Intelligent Falling for a good spoof of the Intelligent Design movement.
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search continues. Mersenne 8,797,639 is not prime. So says my computer, the slowest computer in the world.
Raise your hand with me if last night’s episode of LOST pissed you off beyond all comprehension!
“Tune in tonigh to find out the fates of all the castaways,” was the byline (paraphrased) for last night’s episode. What we found out was “squat” to use the technical term. They didn’t even resolve the cliff hanger from the first episode, the damn bastards. What a crock!
Dr. Domenico Grasso, Dean of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont has placed an article concerning the future/present/morality of engineering into insidehighered.com
I commented on it, but we’ll see if it appears. General consensus from the comments is that the man is full of crap, but he does make some good points. I agree that more humanities should be taught to engineers. I think the “lesser”* engineering schools like state schools in Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvannia, have a good plan by concentrating less on engineering topics and injecting some humanities studies into the curriculum.
You can read and decide for yourself.
*Don’t get all hot and bothered if you went to A&M or Georgia Tech. I think those are excellent schools. I’m poking fun at the people who went (like me) to RPI or to MIT, Cornell, Cal Tech, etc., who feel that anyone who didn’t pay $27,000 a year for their education is dumber than dirt.
Update 9/26/05: I forgot to mention that I received notice of this from Fraudirector. I suppose by not citing correctly in the first place, I was guilty of plagiarism in the first degree, which is causing the sun to slowly cool off and eventually will lead to the heat death of the universe.
Update 9/28/05: Dr. Grasso has posted a response to the responses on the captioned website.
Hey there! If you are reading this feed on Live Journal, I would request that you either delete it from your friends list, or take the trouble to comment back on the original blog entry.
Jim is attempting to kill el billblog LJ feed, but is being unsuccessful so far.
Thanks!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170254,00.html
This was brought to my attention by a co-worker. Fox News had an interview a Mr. Peter Cordani who wants to use the same sort of gel used in diapers to disrupt hurricanes a little bit.
My first instinctive reaction was “this guy is full of crap,” but then I got to thinking about it. Diaper gel coagulates with the addition of water. It must be an endothermic reaction or they wouldn’t put it into diapers. Maybe this guy has got something.
Anyhow, check out the links. I haven’t read them all, but I did skim the Fox News article.
Jenn and I went to see The Phantom of the Opera last night at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. My overal rating was “eh.”
The show itself was good, with good renditions and strong vocals. The sound quality was a bit muddy, but we were way over on the left side of the orchestra seating (EE 21 and 23) which didn’t help matters. The vocal interpretations were also good, and there were some changes to the lyrics to keep those of us who are familiar with the official soundtrack on our toes.
Unfortunately, I will never never never never never go to the Fox Theater again for an off-Broadway show. This is the first theater I’ve been in where they allow you to bring drinks and food to your seat and munch munch munch your way through the second act! This was horribly distracting and in my opinion, unacceptable. This sort of activity would not be tolerated in the northeast and I find it disappointing that they allow it in the cultural center of the South.
I was also privileged with the only obstructed-view seat in the house. The woman in front of me was six feet tall and had done her hair so that it stuck out from her head about 3 inches in all directions. I was tempted to get a glass of water and slick it down for her! Either that or light it on fire; I’m sure the hair products she used would have conflagrated nicely. Thankfully for me, she left during intermission.
Before the show, Jenn and I ate at Eno on the corner of Peachtree Street and 5th Street in Midtown, Atlanta. The food was excellent and their homemade foccacia was splendiferous. Their wine selection is extensive and their recommendations for particular foods was right on in my case (fetuccini with sicilian sausage). We’ll go back.
The Royal Astronomical Society has taken a position regarding the proposed abolishment of leap seconds.
Well, that was news to me, so I had to go do some reading to determine what this was all about. The above position statement is a good description. Also…
Yesterday was a special tax election for Cobb County, Georgia. The proposed tax was a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that is a tool to allow municipalities and counties to levy themselves for specific, earmarked purchases. This SPLOST would be a 1% increase for 6 years.
In this case, the SPLOST was for Transportation improvements (re: my job), Jail improvements, and Parks & Recreation. The numbers I saw projected were, for the 6 year period of the SPLOST, $1.4 billion total dollars, with only $450 million or so coming from Cobb County residents. The rest would be extra-county persons, or state and federal matching dollars.
Not getting into the pros and cons of this SPLOST, yesterday was the day to make our will known, as citizens of a free and democratic society.
All 12% of us!
Twelve percent turnout for this election! That is fucking awful. I tried to encourage people to vote, even if they were voting opposite of me, but apparently my efforts didn’t reach too many people.
Oh, as of this morning, the unofficial results are 50.15% for the SPLOST and 49.85% against, with a 117 vote margin. They are holding off on official results until Friday when the provisional and military ballots are counted.