Month: August 2006

  • Jeff Greene

    My phone rang this afternoon with a wrong number. As my habit is, I typed the number into Google to see who was calling me. It turns out to be Jeff Greene, a composer and bassist originally from Jonesboro, GA. I’ll have to keep an eye on his schedule and go listen if his group ever gets down to Atlanta.

  • Media Assasiniation

    It’s official. John Karr is guilty of the JonBenet Ramsey killing in 1996.

    I know this because the media is now addressing him as John Mark Karr.

    History shows that killers have three names: John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Arthur Herman Bremer, Carlos the Jackal, Mark David Chapman, James Earl Ray, etc.

    I know, now, that the parents didn’t do it, it was John Mark Karr.

  • Dark Matter!

    The one, the only…Dark Matter!

    Direct evidence of dark matter has been found. At least according to the press release by NASA. I do not pretend to fully understand this topic, but I think it is the height of coolness that there’s all this stuff out there that we can’t detect except by inference.

    Of course, Dark Energy is even weirder, and cooler.

  • Pluto, redux?

    Well! As posted here, and here, I’ve been talking about this whole “Planet” thing. Now there’s more development.

    Apparently the IAU is revising their revised revision again, and might eliminate Pluto from the planet list, dropping back to the 8 “classical” planets, and number all other bodies that would have previously been called “planet” into the “dwarf planet” category. This would include Charon and Ceres and 2003 UB313.

    Further and further we go. It’s all arbitrary people!

  • I'm Tired of these Mother****ing Yellowjackets on my Mother****ing Driveway

    Title says it all.

    Ouch

    Ouch

    Ouch

    *******

    22:00 Update:

    I’m usually a proponent of “green” outdoor chemicals, but not with bees/wasps/yellowjackets. I Raided their ass about an hour ago.

  • Snakes on a Plane

    As several of my friends have already noted, a bunch of people in geographically disparate locations saw Snakes on a Plane this opening weekend.

    My general impression/review is: Exactly what I expected. Campy, stupid, yet still righteously awesome.

    I found it to be a little bit too gratutitously violent, though. Especially when the violence/gore didn’t serve any purpose beyond trying to freak out the audience.

    More comments follow. Beware SPOILERS. (more…)

  • We've got 12 Planets!

    It’s official!

    The voting membership of the IAU has accepted the draft definition of “Planet.”

    This means that we’ve got three new planets, with many many more to come. Ceres, the planet formerly known as an asteroid, takes the coveted fifth planet position away from Jupiter. Charon, the planet formerly known as Pluto’s satellite, is a part of the Pluto-Charon double planet system. 2003 UB313 a.k.a. Xena, is the first of the new Plutons, other than Pluto itself. (Will “pluton” be capitalized or not? Hmmm…)

    What do I think this means. Diddly! I think a lot of people will talk about the 8 “classical” planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) plus the 9th “discovered” planet of Pluto, and then lump all the rest into “those other things.”

    I think Ceres is going to get the small end of the stick here. Not big enough to be considered a planet for 120 years, it’s not even going to be classified as a Pluton. Red-headed step-child syndrome if there ever was one.

    Of course, whether we have 9 planets or 8 or 12 or (soon) a gazillion, it’s all very arbritraryarbitrary. See my last post.

  • Pluto, Plutons, Plutonium, Plutae?

    The International Astronomical Union has posted a draft definition of “planet” that will serve to define our solar system and all others for all time!

    Well, not exactly, as Phil Plait over at badastronomy.com points out quite well. The rules boil down thus:

    1) It’s got to be big enough to be spherical due to it’s own gravity.
    2) It’s got to orbit a star, not another planet or satellite.

    Go to the Phil Plait link above for a full debrief on why this is rather arbitrary and stupid.

    I have an opinion, though.

    My opinion is that if they’re going to be arbitrary about the definition of a planet, why not be wholly arbitrary and not worry about the science. Here’s my take on the whole thing:

    1) The Solar System has 9 Planets
    2) Pluto keeps planet status just because it’s been a planet for 70 years.

    That’s it. Nothing further. Entirely arbitrary. Make it so, number one…