Hermetic Physics

A Basari Point opens...

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:27:53 GMT

N. Robin Crossby passed away a few hours ago.

Gygax may have put RPGs on the mainstream map, but Crossby had him beat on every factor other than business savvy.

He was the creator of Harn and the primary author of the HarmMaster rules-system... and was hands-down the absolute best World-builder ever published. (and I've played over 100+ RPGs) One could argue that other games may be more fun (subjective) or interesting (subjective), but nothing beats HarnMaster for immersion, consistency, and detail. (Aargh! All the detail!)

I had been following his blog for the past several years, during his long fight with cancer, the ups, the downs, the false hopes, and the Realization that the End was Coming. During it all he handled it with Robin-style wit and humor... it's not often that I laugh out loud at a dying man's account of his experiences with his illness.

His last blog post can be found here. It is a bit disjointed (understandably so considering the meds), but it is far more lucid than it may initially appear. This is classic Robin.

Harn, his campaign world, began in the early 60s, and he was creating content up until he could no-longer see the computer screen (2 weeks ago).

He may have been a loon. But he was a ~great~ loon - and the world is darker for his passing.

The entire Phylum my body belongs to is full of morons.

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:32:05 GMT

Grr.

Not so long ago, time-of-death was recorded when the heart stopped beating. For quite a few decades now, the new accepted & legal definition of death is when the brain stops functioning. If the brain flat-lines, pulling the plug is not considered murder anymore.

Religious/Philosophical/Legal issues aside... lets just be consistent: If life ends with cessation of brain function, then life starts with a measurable EEG signal.

If we want life to start with a beating heart, then lets go back to the old definition of "death."

Geebus. It's not rocket-science people. It's called c o n s i s t e n c y .

And yes, bruisedbuthappy, this is in response to the vid you posted. gidster calls 'em "Godtards." It might be a little rough, but in this case I think the name fits. >:(

There. I feel better.

Warhammer, Conversation, and Pick-On-Random-Person.

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:35:24 GMT

Had a nice "Small World" moment yesterday.

I woke up to find jackalsmischief pouring over the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning site again (we've been keeping an eye on the game for quite some time now), and he was excited because he found some nice artwork done by one of the spotlighted gamers on the Women of WAR page. I took a quick look and mentioned that I know of someone in San Fransisco that had been involved in making some cool Witch-hunter gear. i.e. lilibat.
He got all animated and shot back that he just read her interview on Women of WAR. A pretty minor incident, true. But it's still feels strange when two normally unrelated people cross paths in my Universe.
In any case, an interesting conversation ensued where I had to explain how I *really* didn't know her and I had only found her on LJ because I was surfing one day last year and found a pretty woman with blue hair. And then I realized that fate *really* meant for ~me~ to escape to San Fransisco but apparently chose her instead. Fate and I had a disagreement. As usual, I ranted and Fate just ignored me. Fate really is a bastard sometimes.

I can see why Fate was confused though, seeing as though lilibat are both gamer-goth-geeks born about the same time in about the same part of the country and had almost identical childhoods.
Except she has the before-mentioned blue hair.
And she is actually using her art skills instead of squandering them making gaming maps.
And she is actually using her interest in Game Design to, well, DESIGN GAMES.
And she actually has a goth scene that is active.
And she doesn't have to drive 100 miles to attend a club if she wants to dance.
And I think she's more into computer games than into pen&paper ones.
And she doesn't live in the cesspit-that-is-the-bible-belt anymore.
Did I mention that she's in SF and I'm not? That's really important.

Okay, fine. We're really not that much alike.

She doesn't teach Mutants how to properly take over the world (granted, some get more attention than others). Or have 'bella. Or get her life sucked out by The Freak every couple months.

There. Just trying to prove that no one is beyond scrutiny. Even the great lilibat-who-gets-interviewed-and-I-don't. ;-P

Now I just have to figure out how to get littlebella1980, thecloris, and strange_venus onto the Women of WAR site as well. Although it would help if I could all of them interested in WAR first, yes? Hmmm.

I can really see strange_venus playing Chaos. Or rather, I can't really see her playing anything but Chaos.

Kino!

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:37:09 GMT

jackalsmischief and I saw The Dark Knight today.

Whoo!

Ahem...

SQUEEEEE!

See it. Pay the overpriced gouging to catch it on the big screen. Enough said on that.

Also, The Watchmen trailer looks FANTASTIC. If you are one of the 4 geek/nerds on the planet that have NOT read The Watchmen graphic novel, do so before this movie comes out. If you don't have the graphic novel, buy it. It was written to be fully understood only after repeated readings, so purchasing the monster is warranted. You won't be disappointed.

He has a Ph.D in Horribleness!

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:01:37 GMT

I may, as usual, be the last one to know about this... and I'll leave out the embedded video to save those who have already seen it.

But I now owe lordlothair copious amounts of alcohol on his b-day this Monday for bringing it to my attention.

After watching Act I and Act II (and Act III if you hit it in time), you'll owe him alcohol as well.

Apparently, after this Sunday, it will only be available on the upcoming DVD, so get to it quickly. If you haven't seen it, give it a few minutes... it's WELL worth it.

It's like a train-wreck.
A train-wreck fighting a Monster-truck.
That sings.
Sings well, actually.

OkieDokie

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:40:41 GMT

Now that I"ve had a chance to fall unconscious for several hours, I can post some things.

The 2 days with The Freak were pretty good.

Day 1:
Went to Great Times for most of the afternoon (imagine Crack For Kids with go-karts and a giant plastic ball pit), and 'bella had the great idea of inviting out gidsterand the clan as well. It was a bit to hot, and FAR too much sunlight, but all in all not a bad time. :-)
It was then off to let littlebella1980's mom have some Q-time with The Freak, then off to my parents' place for the same. Yes, my parents. It took 7 years, but the maternal-unit and I are at least talking again.
Then, back up to Muncie so The Freak could spend some time with the cats. Sadly, not many of the beforementioned animals had much interest in being visited. :-/ Jabber was a good boy though, and sat there disgruntled for quite a while before finding a quiet (and undiscovered) hidey-hole.

Day 2:
Off bright and early to go back to my parents' place to meet up and then ::gasp:: off to the pool.
Yes. A pool.
In snooty ~Carmel~ of all places.

Proof:

There were 3 pools other than this one, several slides, and a lazy-river... none of which I touched. It took a herculean effort of will (i.e. The Freak saying "please" for the second time.) for me to even snap this picture. She's in here, really.
Here's another pic of her to help to find her.

The pool-pic looks pleasant enough... assuming you like pools. And people. And sunlight. And 90+ degrees. And high humidity. And you're not allergic to chlorine.
Oh, and I was surprised by my sister arriving as well. The ~evil~ sister. The one I tried to kill twice as a kid (still don't know how I missed >,<). The Maternal Unit was manageable, until The Sister showed up. Together they form some kind of Wonder Twin of Negativity. So the Paternal Unit and I sat away from everyone and tried to keep our heads down. In the shade.

After the pool, however, we sprung the big one on The Freak. Horseback riding! I thought she was going to EXPLODE when I told her. In KY, she practically lives on a horse-farm and isn't allowed to ride (giving that she is, well, small). She is stubborn however (don't know where she got that) and that's pretty much what matters on a horse. So... up in the saddle she went. Solo. And for a little girl who is pathologically afraid of bugs, she looked pretty confident on a beast that out-massed her 40 fold.
About 70% of the way through the trail, her horse decided to take a different route... and she very quickly forced it back on the right path. It was over pretty much before anyone really knew what was happening. I suppose you really had to be there to appreciate it.
35 pound 6 year old girl forcing a 1200 animal to do what she wanted. Not bad for a n00b that is "too small" to ride a horse. ;-)
I called KY afterwards and told them what happened (better to ask forgiveness than permission, yes?)... and they were probably more impressed that I was. Perhaps she'll see a bit more riding in her future. :D

Oh, while we were waiting for the horses, I snapped this picture. It's either proof that my father exists (despite his stupid poker hat) or proof that 'bella is afraid to sit close to him.

Then it was back to the 'rents for playtime with her cousin (the ~evil~ sister's spawn) and the feathered demon they affectionately call "Chi-Chi".
I grew up this this bird. The names I called it were far more descriptive. >,<

After that I was practically carrying her over my shoulder when I dropped her off at her Grandmother's place.
Once I made it back to Muncie I was practically carrying myself over my shoulder when I dropped myself off in bed.

Oofta

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:21:48 GMT

Two days running with The Freak.

Tired.

Very tired.

Post details later.

Still have soul. Barely.

Someone wanted to say "hello."

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:22:01 GMT

A date with a sentient Event Horizon.

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:21:35 GMT

Heading out to spend 2 days with The Freak (aka ~ENERGY VAMPIRE~) this morning. Fortunately, I got some sleep last night.

Further updates:

1) Two weeks left until work starts grinding up again. Not particularly looking forward to it, but not dreading it either. <== I'll take that as positive.

2) I'm up to step 6 of the "2nd Job Thingy" for the fall. We'll see if my weirdo-oh-my-god-he-doesn't-have-short-hair appearance keeps me out of it. ;-) If I don't get it, it's not really a disaster - I can't decide if teaching at a Community College is a step up or step down. >,< Either way I step, I suppose, means a bit more cash flowing in... and *that* is a good thing!

3) My brain is working in 5th gear as of late, and I'm not really sure of what it's up too. Hopefully it'll let me know what it's grinding on when the time is right... else I'm wasting ~A LOT~ of time staring into space or pacing the house.

4) Geek News: I have a new campaign in the wings. It'll be tricky... it's been over a year, and I have brand-spanking-new gamers to break in to The Horrors That Is Harnmaster. Heh, we'll see how this turns out.

5) littlebella1980 has been doing pretty sell as of late. Which of course, if you have been paying attention, means that marduk_lok is a happy camper. After all, no good vibes for me to feed on and I get all cranky. >,< The Freak has to get her ~ENERGY VAMPIRE~ nature from somewhere, yes? :-P

Clean/Play/Work/Love/Plan (isn't this everyone's life?)

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:39:39 GMT

News/Epiphanies of the Week:

1) The Basement is finally getting cleaned. I know ppl who say their basements are complete ~horrors~. I've seen their basements. I'm embarrassed to let them see mine. 6 cats + 3 lazy people + 4 people's stored belongings + 1 washer/dryer set + 4 years of inactivity + 2 minor floods + 1 major flood = the 1 one place which even *I* actively avoid. It's gross. >.<

2) Getting a campaign back up and running after a little more than a year. Or at least trying. It's hard to find ppl who have even heard of Harn-master, not to mention willing to put up with its hyper-realistic rules set. Of course, this could be another 30+ hour of prep-work that goes *poof* after a session or two. At least my particular neurosis of "Must Have World Make Sense" works out well in this arena. No one is gonna accuse me of having an illogical campaign world. ;-P

3) First day for faculty starts up in a little over three weeks. I can't say I got a lot of productive work in this summer, although I can't say I'm disappointed for that either. Productive work over a summer = wasted summer IMHO. :-) I'm uber-productive 10 months out of the year: If they aren't gonna pay me for the other 2, then I don't feel much motivation... besides, 2 months of 24/7 video-games doesn't really strike me as a ~bad~ thing.

4) lordlothair needs to stop throwing girls in my direction. My weakness for broken-strays gets me in trouble far more often than it helps, as my brain has been going in bad bad directions in this arena as of late. People always point out the perks of being Poly. No one ever mentions the fact that unless your plate is full-to-bursting, you're almost always lonely.

5) I'm on step 4 of 6 of getting a second job in the fall. If I can wrangle a simple "one night a week" teaching at ::shudder:: Ivy Tech this year it would go a long, long way towards:
a) a new car
b) medical stuff for littlebella1980
c) driveway for the house
d) new windows
Sadly, that's probably the order of precedence. No new car means that soon I won't be able to provide b, c, or d.
If I don't go for the job route, I'm seriously considering looking into the Einstein Fellow program in Washington DC. 60k for 10 months work. Only about 1 in 500 applicants get in, but hopefully my quals and background will overshadow my non-standard approach to life as far as Uncle Sam is concerned. Okay, it probably won't, but at least I'd get the satisfaction of making them tell me that. ;-)

Oh, and monstermommy found an interesting meme, for those who aren't on her LJ. Normally these little tidbits are little more than interesting-yet-ephemeral curiosities. This one could actually be useful to someone. :-)

Based on the lj interests lists of those who share my more unusual interests, the interests suggestion meme thinks I might be interested in
1. traveller score: 9
2. form 30 score: 8
3. golden dawn score: 7
4. hermeticism score: 7
5. qabalah score: 6
6. science fiction conventions score: 5
7. world building score: 5
8. daoism score: 4
9. greek history score: 4
10. transhuman space score: 4
11. indianapolis score: 4
12. alternate histories score: 3
13. qaballa score: 3
14. british traditional witchcraft score: 3
15. masonry score: 3
16. champions score: 3
17. more machine than man score: 3
18. freemasonry score: 3
19. 2300ad score: 3
20. inkink score: 3

changed by ouwiyaru based on code by ixwin
Find out more
___

From this, I realize four things:
1) The Scientist/Mystic Battle-of-the-Ages may better be described as the Geek/Mystic Battle-of-the-Week. It's like the Universe wants to keep reminding me about the "quasi" in my "Quasi-Atheist."
2) Hebrew really needs to find a way to standardize its romanized scripting.
3) Somehow, T2300AD is still holding on after 22 years of being out of print, and...
4) Harn-master isn't despite having two separate companies producing for it. >,<

Amusing Tangent

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:08:05 GMT

Just a clever animation.
Safe for work.
Pretty quick.
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf

TELL YOUR CHILDREN

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:14:10 GMT

shiny_papillon, I can't get that music video out of my head.

Brilliant, I tell you. Brilliant.
I watched it 4 times and found something even *more* clever with each successive viewing.

"I like my coffee black just like my metal..." ::bobs head:: "::kablam::"

Late. Tired. Random News/Chat

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:36:55 GMT

I've been playing with the Spore Creature Creator. Assuming that even 70% of what EA wanted to put in the game actually gets into the game, it should be well worth purchasing. At least it hits the shelfs after I get paid again! Not getting paychecks in the summer leaves a bit to be desired. If you haven't heard of Spore, check it out:
Spore Official Site
It'll be one of those 'cutesy' games, but I'm secure enough in my evilness to relax a bit and conquer a galaxy via cuddly-micro-organisms-turned-horrible-monstrosities.
_

Some girls that 'bella bellydances with told her that they were surprised that she 'considered' herself goth. Sometimes I *really* get tired of the masses mistaking emo-gothling with goth. Wearing black is nice and all (and looks damn cool when done properly), and frankly, when going out 'on the town' I won't wear anything BUT black... but earth-tones are just fine with me thank-you-very-much. I've been "Goth" for over 20 years. Damn proud of it. And I feel sorry for anyone who says "you're not Goth because you < insert idiotic reasoning here >." As far as I'm concerned, those true dark-souls that I respect who *do* wear velvet/eye-liner/etc don't do it to prove to themselves that they hate humanity - they just need to look out the window to reinforce ~that~. They wear it because it because it's who they are, and frankly, look damn-fine doing so. :-P
Besides, sometimes after a late-night out-of-town, I can't make it home to change before classes start... so I show up with all my regalia. Always good to keep The Mutants on their toes!

Thanks to lordlothair for bring this to my attention.

_

Bella dyed her hair red a few weeks back. Jackal is thinking of doing the blue route. *That* outta be interesting.
_

I'm this close to ~finally~ getting my 2nd tattoo. All that remains is the design that's been rattling around in the back of my head for the past 4 years... it's almost ready to let me know what it is - almost. I have been, in the interim, working on a 'family' design for 'bella, jackal and myself. Who knows what'll come of that, but it gives me a chance to stretch my art-genes a bit... gods know that it's been a while since I've been able to do that.
_

17 years ago I started growing a beard. Frankly, I was too young to realize that I looked, well, like crap with a beard. Yes, it was a girl who convinced me to do it... it's always a girl, I know. 14 years ago I got fed up with it (thankfully) and shaved it off... but stopped when I saw the goatee. Of course, think back to the early 90's. No one had a goatee. Only visitors from the 'evil universe' and villains in movies/TV had goatees. So, I just had to keep it. After all, I started wearing this ponytail back in the mid-80's... when only "girls" and rockstars had them.
That's me, Mr. Trendsetter. ;-P
Well, the point is that 3 weeks ago I started on this beard thing again. Still not sure if I like it. I'll give it another few weeks before I re-evaluate if it's a keeper. Otherwise: zip-zop it's back to the goat.
Frankly, I'm not sure if *anyone* on this blog has known me long enough to remember me without a goatee. hmm.
_

I'm seriously thinking about getting a second job in the fall teaching Physics at Ivy-tech. The extra cash would certainly go a long way to replacing the MX-6... although I'll miss the old girl. She's twelve years old, has most of her original parts, and still gets over 33 mpg on a regular basis - but my inner-voice is telling me that her time is almost up, and I don't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere... since mainly everywhere I go is in the middle-of-nowhere.
Well, that and I should probably listen to the inner-voice. 12 years ago I didn't listen to it and had to work at not drowning in a collapsing cave complex. 8 years ago I didn't listen and lost Serena, Isabella, The Freak, and a house. 4 years ago, I didn't listen and was almost fired from my dream-job (although I can't say I have many regrets on that one, though). Now that I hear the whispering again, well... let's say I don't feel like drowning anytime soon.
_

I think I'm still getting used to this America thing.
My mother's family came over from Australia about the time she was being, well, born. My father's parents came over from Norway/Luxembourg in the 20's. Mom's side settled in southern Louisiana. Dad's side settled in Minnesota. So I grew up on gumbo and sourkraut (thankfully not at the same time!) and wasn't sure if I had an Australian accent or a Scandinavian one. What I really want to know is why my parents decided to settle in INDIANA of all god-damned places? ::sigh::
I'm *certainly* still getting used to this Hoosier thing. >,<
_

Other than the above rants, I suppose that things are doing pretty well. For the next few weeks, my life will still consist of:
1) getting out of bed
2) playing computer games
3) eating (optional)
4) going back to sleep
Not a bad set-up, actually.
Soon, work will start back up and it'll be back to teaching Mutants on the proper way to enslave the world, so I'm enjoying my forced exile from the working world while I have it.
_

Oh! 'bella went to her college orientation today. She now will have the pleasure of taking those lovely *core classes*! Lucky her! :-P
_

Hmm... well, I did warn you with the subject line, yes?

Notice how most of my posts come in 3s?

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:45:42 GMT

This is a X-post, so if you are on lordlothair's LJ, feel free to move along - there's nothing new to see here.

Thanks Lothair, I was starting to forget what real music sounded like. I haven't been following Abney Park at all, perhaps because the first piece I heard from them so long ago wasn't that good? Who knows - but now I'm all irritated at myself for not giving them another chance.

I think I saw one of these guys perform with Ghost Project - which was a pretty good live show. Goes to prove I don't take hints well, eh?

If you don't like goth/steampunk, ~~feel free to also move along~~ what the hell are you doing on my friends' list?

http://nstv.fdiskc.com/abneypark/edison/APEdisonSleep427.mov

Ah, bliss.

BTW, lilibat (and I'm still not sure why you joined this Freak Train I call a blog - *I'm* supposed to be living vicariously through ~you~, remember?), I'd suggest that you contact these guys and start making props for them... but you may ~already~ make props for them - and then I'd look like an idiot, now wouldn't I? ;-)

Midsummer

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:02:21 GMT

As we've spoken of before, in the Eternal battle between The Scientist and The Mystic, The Mystic finds Itself in the infirmary most days of the year. There are a few days, however, where It does come out on top.

Words cannot describe how much The Scientist seethes at that.

To 90% of my friends' list, enjoy the sunshine while we have it. It only gets darker from here out. ;-)
For the remaining 10%, may your feet fall on warm earth this season.

It's been almost two decades since I've truly considered myself among that 10%, but old habits die hard... and damnit, the Scientist can't win all the time - otherwise it wouldn't be called a "battle", now would it? Perhaps it's important to note that this year I didn't hold out for the 23rd to make this announcement (I split the difference between the traditional and technical Solstice this summer).

But perhaps it's also important to note that I made the announcement at all.

It's odd to feel the slow slide into pure rationality, when so much of my life used to be firmly seated in The Mystic's camp - although, upon reflection, the gradient has evened out for the most part: A few months ago, I heard a student describe me as a "Spiritual Atheist," and neither The Scientist nor The Mystic were particularly offended.

Hmm... odd how rambling on LJ brings things to the surface, eh?

Even odder (sue me, I'm a physicist, not a grammaticist!) how I make you wall watch while I do it. ;-P

So, I suppose that I'll continue to pray to the Math Gods and study how/why The Universe do-what-It-does. Hopefully, at the end, It grades on partial credit.

Yes, I thought about it

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:36:54 GMT

...and then I thought about it again.

But I am ~compelled~, you see. ~Compelled~ by a force I don't completely understand.

I'm sorry.

Perhaps it's 4:48am speaking... Maybe it's too much Coke Zero? Perhaps it's the loneliness creeping in? Let us hope that on the 'morrow I've come to my senses (as they are) once again.

spent

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:13:08 GMT

Woke up at 8am, made it to Indianapolis by 10am, picked up The Freak.
Leave The Freak back at her Grandma's at 10pm.

That's twelve hours of dealing with a 6 year old, 35 pound, energy vampire.

Wendy's - Easy

Zoo - 11am to 5pm (we closed the place). Must have walked the damn place three times (we had to see the Giraffe's at least three times... apparently just-in-case they weren't there anymore.) High Point of Day: A tiger decided it wanted to eat her... I don't think I was ever THAT close to a tiger before. It's amazing of how un-frightening it is when a 400 lb cat is barreling down at you when you know in your heart that *you* are not the target of its attention. ;-)

Circle Centre Mall - 5pm to 6pm. Ice cream and to visit Grandma Kellie at work

Castleton Mall - 6pm-7pm. Went to her favorite mall playground. Low Point of Day: A dejected and infinitely bored little girl makes the realization that she has officially outgrown her favorite playground. Several moments of surprisingly sophisticated soul-searching occurs.

Fishers McDonalds - 7pm to 9pm. Found an "acceptable" playground (for the time being).

Grandma's - 9pm to 10pm. Try to disentangle myself from a suddenly re-energized tentacle monster as she does everything in her power to keep me from leaving.

Back home around 11pm.

Doesn't seem like much after re-reading this... apparently I'm leaving out the ~ENERGY VAMPIRE~ part of it.

Zzzzzzzz

Random updates and comments

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:50:34 GMT

Kung Fu Panda.
See it. :-)
Stay for the credits.
Yes, this means you too, nightshade1387... esp. since you know who probably thinks that animated movies are for kids. :-P

I got a phone call from The Freak today. Not often *that* happens. :-) She wanted to tell me that she named a stuffed animal "Princess Phoenix." If you know anything about the Allacyn/Phoenix fiasco that happened several years ago, you'll know why that gave me the uber-fuzzies. :D

I'm still playing Age of Conan. Compared to where World of Warcraft was at this point in its development, it's ~golden~. Having said that, I'll be glad when they finally work the bugs out.
It's really a shame that they took out much of the initial wish-list of the devs - mainly due to the 'masses' complaining that it 'wasn't like WoW enough' or 'this is too hard to do' or 'I don't want to have to *learn* a game" or other similar concepts. I'm only half-way through the level progression though, and I really try to reserve judgement (good or bad) until I've seen early/mid/end-game for myself.

I was missing z this past week. Missing my little kiva too. Not upset about how the Universe dealt the cards, but that doesn't mean I can't miss people, does it? One day I'll find someone who can put up with a neo-pagan-kabalist-agnostic with a poly-bdsm-gamer goth-academic lifestyle. That day wasn't today. Nor was it yesterday.

Possibly tomorrow.

Random News from the World of Science! (update)

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:28:32 GMT

Yes, it's been far, far too long since I've irradiated your eyeballs with randomly useless factoids from < reverb > The World of Science < /reverb >.

Space & Earth Science

Astronomers Argue that Pluto is a Planet A "Plutoid"? ::sigh:: The IAU really dropped the ball with this whole Dwarf Planet thingy. There are so many better ways to classify that don't literally lock down the description of a planet to those objects orbiting our own star. But did they ask me? No. Idiots, all of them! ;-)

RIP: Ulysses Solar Probe Coming to End Soon ::salute:: This was one useful lil' trooper. We owe a great deal of our modern meteorological models to this device. She lasted much longer than was expected... and was probably one of the most successful probes our species ever launched from this rock.

Summer's Twilight Zones And you thought Twilight was simple.

Major Breakup Threatens Antarctic Ice Shelf This one was only 160 square kilometers, but was the keystone protecting a huge formation behind it. Wee!

Cosmic Grim Reaper Seen For First Time We finally catch a glimpse of a supernova *as* it triggers. Got lucky with this one! Although, I still think that my earlier post (March 11 2008: Looking down the Barrel) fits this title a bit more closely. :-)

Sociology

Primitive People: Innocent or Savage? A stupid title for the article, but it just makes me happy that we as a society can still have this argument. (The answer, of course, is "neither." But did anyone ask me? Once again... "no".) There is a very nice image-link in the second paragraph of this article. I don't think that these men really wanted that plane in their skies. You go, fellas! :-)

Pursuit of Females Dates Way, Way Back Uhm. Duh.

Life Science

Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead Easter references aside, this is still pretty cool.

Better Sleepers Are 'Successful Agers' I know this will make some of you very very happy. Okay, not so much.

Study: Tree Leaves Have Built-In Thermostat Neat!

Technology

Hybrid Cars: How the Work I found this little article to be overly simplified, but I include it here for those who were curious. :-)

Behind the Scenes:
Cloaking Device Concept Moves Beyond Theory I've been following this for a bit, but apparently they made a sizable jump forward when I wasn't looking. We're a ~long~ way off from a true "cloaking field", but at least now we have the mathematics down - which is the hairy part of the process.

Monkey's Robot Arm Feels Natural When they can just replace this old shell of mine with a diamond and titanium war-machine, then I'll know that I've made the Big Time.

Robotic Soldier Suit Demonstrated LOL. For now I'll just settle for this. One day we'll use this to battle gigantic alien queens!

Odds and Ends (mostly odds)

One-horned Deer Looks Like Mythical Unicorn Uhm, not what *I* have always pictured... a silly article, but newsworthy IMHO. Barely, granted. :-)

Lost Parrot Recites Address to Veterinarian And my old parrot did nothing but yell "DIE DIE DIE" and try to bite you while laughing maniacally. Really. It was creepy!

Pick Your Pet: Program Evaluates Animal Personalities Uhm... perhaps I should have had littlebella1980 do this? ;-)

___

And, to be true to tradition, here is the picture bonus. Consider it your reward for sitting through yet another installment of "Random News from the World of Science!":

In 1990, when Voyager 1 finished it's projected mission and was sling-shotted out of the ecliptic plane, it was given one last assignment: turn around and take a family picture of all the planets it had surveyed. Accidentally, it captured the image of one planet it wasn't programmed to visit - Earth. Buried in the mess of the photo, Earth took up less than one pixel worth of space. Below is the exploded view of one small corner of the photograph. You live on that ~tiny~ pixel marked by the cursor.

The 'vertical' beams are simply errors caused by scattered light. The camera needed to be angled very close to the sun for the photo, so the computer was programed to put 'unwanted space' where the optical aberrations would occur.

Blown up even further, we see our planet in one of the optical aberrations caused by scattered light in the lens. This is our earth as seen from over 4 ~billion~ miles away.

Carl Sagan noticed the bright pixel and did the legwork to find out what it was... when he realized that it was the Earth, he was "altered forever" (his words). He spent the rest of his life trying to get this message across:

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

My deepest apologizes (as deep as this shallow bastard gets, anyway) for any inferred mushiness. But, I stumbled upon Sagan's speech today, and remembered a very emotional 22 year old back in 1990 when he first read/saw this speech/photo. So there. You'll take it and you'll like it. :-P

Voice Post

Wed, 21 May 2008 22:18:07 GMT

Only one day left.

Tue, 20 May 2008 23:11:12 GMT

Well, 7 shows down, 2 to go.

The "Traveling Roadshow" hasn't killed anyone, although I've been tempted. We have tried to ruin two tables and a floor, though.

The run-down of demos are as follows:

Introduction
Indicators (secret messages)
Sulfer Hexaflourine (me) and Helium (or how to talk like a daemon)
Chemical Transformations (Muffin of Doom!)
Van de Graff machines (Electrocuting Big Angry Orange Students)
Electro-magnetism (Wireless Power and Magnetic Levitation
Hydrogen Peroxide on Crack (or How to Burn Yourself with Foam!)
Angular Momentum 1 (spin till you vomit)
Angular Momentum 2 (me)
Waves and Sound
Pendulums and Conservation of Energy (or "Put the Shot-Put *Inside your Face*")
Redox experiments (Shake 'till your green, baby!)
Pressure (torture the balloon!)
Bed of Nails (me) (torture the instructor!)

We originally had a HUGE finale that involved an explosion that technically violated every school fire-code in the state.
We were doing it anyway. ;-)
Unfortunately, we ran out of Hydrogen (we're still not sure how we ran out... probably an honest mistake of not tightening the valve one-night), which REALLY bummed out the Mutants...

...fortunately, we rallied and made up for the lack of ::BOOM:: with a bit more personality and energy, and replaced the finale with live "bed of nails" trick. Foresight won the day (I brought some extra demos "just in case") and we're using a bed of nails I borrowed from a Freak Show performer I know up here in Muncie.

It's not nearly as exciting as the ::BOOM::, but it seems to be entertaining enough.

It also hurts a lot. :-P

I guess it did!

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:05:01 GMT

It's been awhile since I've used this (2 years? More?), so I wanted to make sure I still remembered how. It's now pre-dialed into my c-phone.

Mwahaha

((EDIT: Wow! The auto-transcribe feature is pretty accurate. Not sure if I like it though >,<. Why log a voice post when ppl will just read it?!? Preposterous!))

Indystar sex quiz

Wed, 07 May 2008 02:51:39 GMT

((apologies for repeats on some people's friends page!))

My thanks to vargr23 for the link. :-)

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
(the quiz is down towards the bottom of the page)

I did a pretty honest job of it, which was primo-boring for the first half... until I they allowed for free-answer. tee hee

I answered as honestly as I could. And was a brutally graphic as possible. ;-P
Hopefully I made at least one journalist spit their coffee all over their monitor.

And yes, a few members of this reading audience were mentioned.
And no, I didn't use names.

w00t! Not ~stupid~ this time!

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:20:30 GMT

IQ: 147
Strength: Pattern Recognition

EBaum's World IQ Test

Two important notes:
1) I may have an "approximate* IQ of 147 but I obviously couldn't figure out how to embed the final page. Kept getting "invalid video URL." Obviously my "strength" was not found to be 'fix URL code." :-P ((really wouldn't matter, you can post in whatever IQ you wanted in that code!))
2) wyndebreaker is not allowed to take this test. I refuse to give him my Genius this time!

Okay, a third one:
3) wyndebreaker isn't allowed to fix the URL either. :-P You've stolen my genius for the last time!

Very simple.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:41:35 GMT

Stumbled on an interesting web-page today.

I appreciate simple, clear, unambitious webpages.

The Official God F.A.Q.

You may not agree with it, but you can't deny that it is, in fact, straight-forward.