The Real Life of Ents

Puzzlewood, according to its article at Wikipedia, is "an ancient woodland site, near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,England.^[1][2] The site, covering 14 acres, shows evidence of open cast iron ore mining dating from theRoman period, and possibly earlier."  It was also evidently the inspiration for many of the forests in Tolkien's, as well as Rowling's fantasy books.
More pics available at Retronaut.

Jeffrey Kluger: The Sibling Bond

A 21 minute talk over at TED.
Put down the duck tape kids, it's not that kind of sibling bond.

Police Sketches of Literary Figures

Can be seen here, as described in a BBC article.

50 Years Ago Today: Friendship 7's Flight

Take a moment to read the article at Wikipedia.

Fifty years, that's a long time.  To put it in perspective, we look back at the Mercury program over the same span of time that the astronauts of 1962 looked back at pre-WWI aviation.

last Friday...

Star & Micey at the Mockingbird.  And a good time was had by all.

It's Saturday Night

It's the Saturday night before Mardi Gras.  And I wish you a Merry Bayou Teche, and a happy Lazy Magnolia.

Sent by a friend who does work at NASA...

I strongly suspect that something like this applies to much of the rest of the world too.

The Last WWI Veteran Died this Week

... and the world took remarkably little notice.  Here's the story at the BBC.


I'm kind of stunned at the lack of mention Mrs. Green's passing has received.  Granted, she wasn't a combat veteran – the last one, Claude Choules, died almost a year ago.  Mrs. Green was an RAF mess steward, never left England in her duties, and joined up only two months before the Armistice.  But she swore the oath, wore the uniform, and was the very last.  With her death, World War One passes from living history into the dead past.

Sport Illustrated: Apalachicola Swimsuit Issue

Here's the article in The Times:
http://www.apalachtimes.com/news/valentine-10067-apalachicola-edition.html
Sure, why not.  Guess I'll have to pick up a copy.

Welcome to the Future, Part 2: New Reactors

NRC approves two new Nuclear reactors, the first ones in the U.S. in 34 years.  About time.  Westinghouse AP1000's, with passive emergency cooling.  Cool!  Er, nice.
Here are some comments at SlashDot.  Some interesting, some insightful, some merely witty.

Now that's a new flavor....

Kid, it works the same way in physics.

As seen at Emphatic Art School Owl:

Fourth Ward Cleaver is Up: Mardi Gras Issue

Right here!
So much more family-friendly than the last post.

Krewe du Vieux parade was...

... about everything you'd expect it to be, given a theme like "Crimes Against Nature."  Here's a listing of the sub-krewes and their float themes: http://www.kreweduvieux.org/subkrewes.html

I'm gonna go take some more aspirin 'bout now.

External FM Antenna

Put up a simple FM antenna last month – 60' of 18 gauge wire from Radio Shack, threaded through a couple of trees in the yard.  It's effectively invisible, it works, and it cost less than $10.  Pretty much an optimal solution.
And now I'm listening to WWOZ again.  Can't tell you how much I've missed that station.