XC is Suddenly Cool Again

After a decade of 6"-8" travel rolling sofa trail bikes, suddenly cross-country seems to be getting re-discovered.  Behold, article at Singletracks mag: 

It's an Olympic Year, Which Means XC Mountain Bikes are Getting Sexy Again

I really, really dig that tire in the first picture.  That on the back and some medium knobs up front just look like an extra 10% speed.

But of course we already knew all about how sexy XC mountain bikes really are.

BTW, Singletracks online mag is a pretty good mountain bike resource.  It doesn't quite have the down-home funk of 90's Dirt Rag, but hell, what does?  Seems to be one of the better thing going these days.

It's Been a While...

... since I've had a good Mustang post.  Here we go!

The Value of Education vs. Training

Illustrated well over at yesterday's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal web comic.

Survey Markers, Magnetic Declination Drift, and Border Disputes

Yesterday's xkcd comic dragged up memories of a small fence line discussion last year:

The latest team of surveyors in my neighborhood had used the 1988 local declination value and neglected to adjust for the changes over the intervening 35 years.  This amounted to about 3.5 degrees, which put the buildings, sidewalks, and even city streets at considerable odds with their new maps.  Double check figures?  Nah.  Why bother, the magic computer box on the instrument sed whut it sed.  All of those century-old buildings and two-century old streets were clearly in error.  So the new property lines ran through buildings, carving off a few feet here and there to new owners.

Glad that I had a 65 year old survey map of my place, back when people did math and double-checked it.  Strange how that map was in agreement with, well, reality.

The Ultimate Captcha

These things are getting more and more involved.  I got this lulu this morning:

OK, not terrible, but the previous screen (which I unfortunately did not capture) had more of vague tigers-in-a-foggy-jungle images, in much the same way as the lower-left tractor image.  I actually hade to squint at it for a moment.

But let's stop messing around with these simple image captchas and move on to Things That Only Humans Can Truly Do.  For example,

Make the following indeterminate quantum state collapse into a determinate reality.

The cat is:

[ ] Alive

[ ] Dead

Well, that's certainly a 100% lock on the whole  captcha thing.  Unfortunately the actual hardware/software implementation could be a little tricky.  Not to mention that we'd need an unreasonably large supply of surplus cats.

Teaching the Ham General License Class

Teaching's keeping me busy these next couple of weeks, so blogging may be sporadic.  In the meantime, here's a link to a 2017 post on The Quick & Dirty way to Tech & General License for people with a STEM background.  Really, if I could pull this off while recovering from sinus surgery, you can too.  Also, here's a link to a local club's testing sign-up & what-to-bring page.  Even if you're not on the Forgotten Coast or somewhere in Area X, odds are that the overall procedure will be similar in your locale so it's worth a look.

The band chart.  No, this won't all be on the test, but you will have to show some ability to navigate it.  Click here for the full-res version in pdf.

And That Was the Eclipse That Was

I was driving through Port St. Joe at the peak of coverage here in NW FL and was down to a half-tank, so I used that as an excuse to pull over and observe.  Lacing fingers together to make a crude pinhole gave a decent image on a smooth patch of the gas station's pavement.  At least, it was enough to see a chunk taken out of the image of the Sun, maybe 70%.  Though nowhere near the totality path, I'd still have felt bad if I hadn't at least made that little effort.

Coming out of the gas station (bathroom & caffeine stop), there was a dood hanging out in the gloom outside.  We spoke, he said he'd looked straight at it anyway.  I showed him the improvised pinhole trick and projected a pretty clear image on the sidewalk, still showing a hefty chunk out of the image.  He looked at me uncomprehendingly.  All I could think to say was "Hey, science.  Don't worry too much about it."  Then I popped open my can o' caffeine, got in my car, and headed for home.

Rockin' the Eclipse with a WB-57 Canberra

Article at Newspeak: Solar Eclipse to Be Chased by NASA Jet Planes

Article at the BBC: What it feels like to fly through a solar eclipse

The weather's always clear at 50,000 feet.

That's a telescope in the nose.  I hope.

More on the WB-57 Canberra and why NASA still uses them at the BBC.

As a side-trip, it is interesting to note how the Canberra was developed from the WWII Mosquito light bomber, which was in turn developed form a 1930's air racer, the DH.88 Comet.  Here, have some three-views of each in turn:

Grandaddy DH.88 Comet

Daddy Mosquito

And the 80yo kid, the B-57 Canberra.  Heavily modified for NASA of course.

All this should come as little surprise, since the Mosquito was the proto-communication satellite.  Two big engines, giant wings, room for fuel, and squeeze in a small crew – amazing what you can do starting with those basics.

Bob Dylan Plays New Orleans

Article over at the Times-Picayune

The 82-year-old Bob Dylan's New Orleans concert was extremely Bob Dylan-ish

As well it should be.  Wish I'd been there.  The cell phone treatment is a good idea, deserves emulation.

Monkey Business on April Fool's Day

Here, over at Tam's blog.

I did not have "monkeys, familiar with firearms, take over a medium-small Thai city, with a side-order of Shakespeare" on my 2024 bingo card.

ps: As if on cue, this later showed up after I'd posted the previous:

Think I'll stay close to home for a few days, until this April Fools fever has passed.

15 Minutes of Santos

Following up on the earlier Santos FTF post, here's a good video someguy edited out of his 5-ish hours.

That went by way faster than it did IRL!  BTW, the ambiguous arrow shows up at the 12:16 mark, 46 miles into the ride.  The video guy took the double black diamond route, where I stopped and sorted out that the easy trail was to the left.  Eh, six'a one, half'a dozen th' other.  (Just don't get on the hiker trail off to the right.)

Anyway, good video, good memories, good reason to go again next year.

Wright's Lake Trail, Spring 2024 Version

Took a hike at the Wright's Lake Trail today.  I'm working on checking off all of the local trails for the year – High Bluff, Garden of Eden, Wright's, and St. George.  Just one left to take in before the hot weather hits.  It's been written up before, but here are some pics from today.  As always, click to embiggen.

Recent control burn.  Looks messy, but it is very necessary.  If it looks like something out of Area X, that's because, well, it is.

Zooming in on a couple of the palmetto heads, you can see the green sprouting back out.  Beautiful, healthy, and a natural part of these woods.

One of the big slumps, aka nascent sinkholes.  Nicely burned, to the waterline.

Easy to see the path today.

Walking this bridge is a true leap of faith.  Here it is in dryer times.  About a foot deep over the top of the bridge at present.  The blue thing on the right is a trail marker blaze.

Little to no cell coverage of the area, so I simply put my phone on airplane mode.  Not out of touch though, I brought along my FT-70.  Talked to an acquaintance over in Live Oak just to make sure it was working well enough, and it was.

So overall another good day in the woods!  Shoes are in front of fan drying right now.

On This Fine Equinox

It seemed like time to go back to the Garden of Eden.  Well, at least the alleged one, the same one previously blogged about.  Nice day, peaking in the low 60's.  Probably not many of those left this spring, so we might as well make the best of them.  Lots of people out enjoying the trail, but it never seemed crowded.  The only picture I took (right, bright green in foreground) is of a small torreya tree, something unique to the area.  The trail is truly a small time capsule left over from the last ice age.  It's still Florida, but a very different Florida.

Cougar Attack in Washington State

Cougar attacks gravel biker, fought off for 45 minutes.  Caution, gross pictures.

Good thing they were in a group.  Definitely something to keep in mind when venturing into the wilds.

You're Probably Saying It Wrong

Irish names you're probably saying wrong and how to pronounce them at CNN.

Generally I'm a big fan of simplified phonetic spellings, and I find these entirely confusing.  There are historic reasons though, and these are not easily fought.  From the article:

Another reason is that "there were different stages of spelling normalization in the Irish language.  In the 1950s, they decided to modernize the alphabet."  That's when a lot of simplified, anglicized spellings took off. 

Finally, Ireland is an English-speaking country where only a small minority claims to speak its native language "very well."  So, says O Seghdha, "Another part of it is, yeah, people just having a go."

Eh, I'm not about to go around telling people how to spell their names, especially not today.  As long as they take with my befuddlement and occasional mispronunciations in stride, I'll accept their corrections gracefully, and we're all OK.

On this Pi Day...

Atlas Obscura has a few mathematically-minded things to say, probing the mysteries of:

• Why do we always seem to be solving for x?
• Oldest example of the symbol for zero.  I'm sorry, but it's still a big nothing.
• One scary-ass prime number.
• A mathematician proposes improved phonetics for numbers over radio.

I like that last one, though the article is from 2016 and this system has never caught on.  Here's a direct link to the mathematician in question's web site that gives all they why behind it, and here's the chart:

I kind of like these.  Better than saying "tree" or "fife" and sounding like a dork, and especially better than that jacked-up ITU system.  Wonder if it'll ever catch on?  It should.

ps: If you need more math humor, check out last weekend's Foxtrot.

Still Crimped

Legs are still feeling a little crimped after Saturday's 50 miler, so let's go over crimping wires today.

Huh.  You can learn something every day.  Wish I'd known this decades ago.

Santos Fat Tire Fest 2024

One more year, one more OMBA FTF!  Not as much in the tech details this year, more riding.  Here's a rundown on the proceedings presented as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good

• Rolled in on Thursday with two leaky tubeless tires stuffed in on top of all the gear in my car trunk.  Whipped into Santos Bike Shop's trailhead shop, handed the leaky wheels to the mechanic.  Fifteen minutes later I was headed to the trailhead with two fixed tires and the tools & sealant for next time.  Score!
• No Thursday chow included in the FTF camper ticket, but the Fat Tiki food truck was in the expo area, so seared tuna & fried shrimp (see pic), yeah man.  Couldn't stay away from that place.
• On the subject of food, the FTF-provided meals were mostly very good (mostly, more in a minute).  The bbq on Saturday, after the 50 miler Epic ride, was outstanding and appreciated.
• Interesting camping this year.  Only one of the Biloxi crew showed up, but the neighbors were all cool.  Ended up with a chem e, electrical e, rocket scientist, and a physicist all in close proximity.  Nerd-tastic.  Honestly, I have no idea how that happened, we just gravitated to the same area.
• Speaking of nerd-tastic, I threw a slim jim up in a tree, texted the FCEM director to get on the EOC's ham radio, and we had a good chat on Friday afternoon.  Worked just as well as I could've hoped.  Pics below.
• The Anthem had somehow gotten a bubble in its rear brake line.  Squishy brakes are not good.  The Shimano booth mechanic bled both front and rear in record time, no charge.  Good folks.
• Speaking of the Anthem, it was a joy to ride the entire time.  Much more controllable on those trails than the 2013 Specialized, and much more forgiving on the drop-offs and in the rocks.
• The 50 mile Epic was, as usual and as advertised, epic.  All the fun I wanted and a little more.
• Got to the Epic's lunchtime turn-around point and realized I'd left my shin/knee guards back in camp.  Didn't matter, the rock garden was eight miles in the rear-view by then, only easy stuff ahead.  Glad I hadn't noticed this though, it would have put me off while picking through the rocks.
• Good bands all three nights: Souljam (Thursday & Saturday) and Propaganjah (Friday).
• The rains held off until after the Epic was finished, and only hit after everyone had turned in for the night.  Clear skies in the morning.
• Made a stop on the way down at the Cypress Inn restaurant on the way down, and at the Taste of Dixie diner on the way back, both in Cross City.  Excellent quick lunch food at each.

The Bad (but not very)

• Missed the second woods turn-in off the paved bike path 10 miles into the Epic.  A paceline line of roadies were zipping by, occluding the arrow sign, and I simply missed it.  Added about 3 miles  to the day's total.  My bad.
• Ambiguous arrow at the 46 mile mark -- easy trail to the left, or double black diamond drop to the right?  The choice was left to exhausted riders, so choose wisely.
• While trying to choose wisely (see previous), a guy rode up on a 2013 Specialized Epic just like my old one – with a blown rear shock, just like my old one last year.  Poor guy, his back was hurting too.
• Don't forget your Official Fat Tire Fest Coffee Mug at the breakfast line!  Or no coffee for you!
• Some of the FTF-provided meals were carbo-bombs.  Simple solution, see Fat Tiki food truck above.

The Ugly

• After 23 years of faithful service, the tent need some waterproofing, and brother did I find out when that front blew through on Saturday night.  It wasn't too bad considering the driving rain, but everything inside got a mist of dampness.  In the mid-60's weather this wasn't even uncomfortable, but had it been into the 30's it could have turned dangerous.  Warning received & heeded, Nikwax tent waterproofing on the way.

OK, here's the picture dump.  Onward.

Souljam on Thursday evening.

Ham hang time.  The dummy cord meant for tying to a pack can be handy with the slim jim antenna too.

Spot the antenna!  Still can't believe that I got the perfect hang on the first throw.

Awakened Saturday morning to a bike tarp covered with tiny flower petals.  Either this was a good sign, or a funeral-ish omen.

Guess it was a good sign.  Well, I finished anyway, and without incident.

No trip back would be complete without a stop at the Taste of Dixie Diner in Cross City.

And that's a wrap for the OMBA Santos FTF 2024.  Back next year?  Yes, planning on it.

Just Unreal

I promise, some pics and words on the Santos Fat Tire Fest later today... or tomorrow.  In the meantime, today's APOD is pretty stunning:

Deep Magic

permalink to xkcd 2904

I actually have an idea about Lagrangians that makes them comprehensible, after a fashion.  However, the ramifications are even worse than the usual "shut up and calculate" explanation.  More later?  More later.  In my experience, most physicists find the method both so incomprehensible and distasteful that they move on as soon as that particular semester is completed.

Just back from the Santos Fat Tire Fest.  It went well, but rained last night and now I have a living room full of tent parts and other camping gear drying out.  More posting, with pics, tomorrow.

Tattered Cover Update

While digging around for info for yesterday's post, I stumbled across Denver-based bookstore Tattered Cover's web site.  I was last out there in... '93?  So it has been a while.  I'm glad to see that they're doing OK – not great, but OK – and pulling out of bad times via a Chapter 11 reorganization.  Main site here, reorg details here, and (best of all!) staff picks here.

I wish them well, and look forward to getting out there again in the future.

Weekend Reading: Ringo's Zombie Anthology #4

United We Stand drops today.  You can see what it's about at the publisher's web site.

I have no idea, but I'm jumping in anyway!

More on John Ringo's zombie books here: main novels | anthologies | follow-on novels

50 Years of Blazing Saddles

Short article over at NPR.  Looking back in time, it's odd how much trouble this movie initially had from the critics.  Some people can't comprehend a joke.  If you've never seen it, now's the time.

The Keys

But you're probably not going to like 'em all that much.  Behold:

From SMBC sometime last week.  Link here.  Be sure to click through for the mouse-over & big red button.

Two Methods, Related Result

Previous post & discussion: New paper: Life could be older than Earth itself (2013)

New paper: The possibility of panspermia in the deep cosmos by means of planetary dust grains (arXive pre-print, 2024)

Accompanying popular article: Life Spreads Across Space on Tiny Invisible Particles, Study Suggests (Science Alert)

The actual paper, at only four pages, is quite short.  The Science Alert article may be more to your taste however if you don't have a math-heavy background.  I'll suggest skimming both.

Two completely different approaches, and not exactly looking at the same question either, have come to complementary results nonetheless.  It would not surprise me at all if biosignatures are found in nearby solar systems over the next decade or two.  It may well turn out that life finds a way, and in a most unexpected way.

Views from the Past

Default Mac wallpapers from OS 9 here

Default Mac Wallpapers from OSX here

Heh, remember this one?  Oh I sure do.  A bunch of abstract jellyfish made a hit with some colleagues.

Odd, there's really no category tag for this one, and I refuse to start doing #nostalgia.  Just leave it blank.

Still Good for a Laugh

Damn, I remember seeing this on the live broadcast.  Been a while.  For some reason it crossed my path again this week.  The late 70's weren't all bad.

The Curious Case of Coyote v. Acme

It appears there was a movie actually made, that now is on the verge of being entirely canned, centered on the premise of Wile E. Coyote suing Acme Company over defective products.  Based on a short 1990 humor piece in the New Yorker (link), somebody thought it would be a good idea to expand the concept into a feature-length film.  Hm.  Honestly, that part has me a bit skeptical, but according to an article at The Wrap it did well in test screenings.  (when done here, read the rest of the linked article, it gives quite a bit of background)  Now it seems that a clique of studio execs, infected by the "developed by our predecessors, gotta hate on it" bug and having never bothered to actually watch the film, after shopping it around at an inflated price, have decided to trash it for the tax write-off.

This is either the best decision-to-dump since Batgirl or the worst since Firefly, and frankly, I don't have the data to decide which.  However, now that the ruckus has ensued, I want to see it.  (Heh, now there's a marketing ploy, and a new sort of twist on the Streisand Effect.)  Still, if this thing disappears into the memory hole over a cheap tax dodge, Warner Brothers will have earned the enmity of creative minds across the planet.

OCMS at the Opry, Tonight AND Tomorrow

650 kilohertz, amplitude modulation, starts at 0100z (8pm EST), & point that antenna towards 36N 86.8W (near Nashville TN).  Or you can cheat and just stream it from here.

Old Crow Medicine Show, Live and bounced off the ionosphere tonight & tomorrow.

In case you need a pre-show refresher, here's your catch-up listen and here's all about the show.

The MFJ Shakes

MFJ makes some mighty nice ham gear, but often there's an initial tune-up.  For a side project I recently bought two MFJ-1124 distro panels, one of which is pictured below.

It's a good, neat way of splitting out power from a single source among several radios.  Simple, robust, pre-made, safe.  No scrappy wires hanging out anywhere.  Better than I could put together.  But.. what's that rattle?

Eh, the nuts on the backside of the binding posts were all loose – not even finger tight – except for one that was completely off and  rattling around in the case.  Glad that happened, otherwise I might not have found out until too late!  Popped it open (4 phillips screws), fixed it, tested it, then repeated for the other 1124 just in case, but everything was fine.

MFJ makes good stuff.  "Mississippi's Finest Jewels."  Just, nobody's perfect, so always remember to give MFJ magic boxes a good shake before powering them up for the smoke test.

Let's Get This Week Started

Some things are so great that they need no explanation.  Others merely defy explanation.  Some achieve both.

PSKer & EasyDigi Update

I haven't been using my iPhone & EasyDigi interface to do PSK-31 digital as much as I used to.  Mostly, out of practice, but there was also a documentation issue.  My little 3x5 card "field manual" didn't quite have everything on it, including some oh-by-the-ways/gotchas I used to know but have somehow forgotten, and some features I knew were there but was also out of practice of using.  Too many after-findings scribbled in the margins.  Also, some iPhone 4s-specific things like "take off that bulky case."  Worst of all, there were no "now let's get back to voice" instructions, meaning that that procedure had to be reverse-engineered on the fly in the field every time.  Doable, but another layer of unneeded complexity.  So, I've spent the last week fiddling with the interface and the FT-817nd, and re-documenting things. (here's the original, now superseded documentation)  Before this too gets lost in a miasma of half-remembered things, here's the new doc:

EasyDigi Setup; (done) = set once & forget

1. PSKer: Gears > Always use built in speaker: Off (done)
2. iPhone:
• Settings > PSKer > Mic: On (done)
• Phone Volume 4-5 bars
3. Radio:
• Sp/Ph Switch --> Ph
• Volume/AF: all the way down, then slightly up; avoid overload
• VOX f-10A: On (only works with SSB, which we'll be using)
• VOX Delay #50: 100ms (done)
• VOX Gain #51: 35 (done)
• SSB Gain #46: 10 for digital (65 for voice)
• Set PWR to 2.5w
4. Use V/M to get to correct memory to set frequency, then use < > to use USB mode.
5. Adjust phone output, watching ALC meter while transmitting.

To Get Back to Voice Operations

1. Sp/Ph --> Sp (unless using phones)
2. VOX f-10A: Off
3. SSB Gain #46: 65 for voice (10 for digital)
4. Set PWR to 5w
5. Use band, mode, volume, etc. per usual voice operations.

Also Useful:

• #38 Op Filter: CW/Off/SSB -- my '817 has a 500 Hz CW filter under the 'SSB' setting. YMMV.

Finally, the 3x5 card was replaced by a 4x6 Rite-in-Rain page.  Slightly larger, much more robust.

This lightweight interface and a little plastic USB keyboard chops 3 out of 4 lbs off of pack weight relative to hauling out the laptop and SignaLink.  (That's -6 dB in weight!)  It's a little cramped for contest weekends, but all I really need for weekday trail afternoons on 20m.  Don't forget the 3.5mm-to-Lightning dongle, the EasyDigi interface box needs it.  I keep a dedicated dongle the same bag.

Rainy day.  Read, nerd out, fiddle with gear.  What else you gonna do?

Two Good Things

With so much going on, two good things have crossed my desk in the last few days.  First up, here's Tuesday's launch of a Falcon 9 ISS resupply ship.  The entire video is 22 minutes, but the good part is all in the first 10.  Watch for the booster's beautiful landing, starting around minute 7.  Go full-screen to watch.

Additional commentary at The Silicon Graybeard's blog about the unusual partnership between SpaceX and Northrop-Grumman for this flight.

Next up, over at Lawdog's blog, Cedar recounts an encounter with a pollster pushing for solar power-friendly results.  Her response: Nuclear Power or Bust!  Smart.  Go & read.

Some of those images of the Falcon 9's landing look like something out of a sci-fi movie, but nope.  This is real life.  There are good things in 2024, as much as we may have to look around for them.

ps: Back to the Falcon 9, here are some screen grabs of the booster landing.  Just.... wow.

And that is how it is done.

So, you're having a bad week already?

 

No you're not.  At least, not in comparison.  Get back to work.

WFD 2024: An Attenuated Outing

With wet & nasty weather forecast for Friday and Saturday with clearing and cool on Sunday, I chose the path of dry comfort and decided to forgo the camping trip and just operate QRP with the FT-817nd from a picnic table at Wright's Lake for the last few hours on Sunday.  Altogether, it was far better than dragging home a pile of wet tent and damp gear.

The rules have changed somewhat for 2024.  There are no vast tubs of bonus points for the various outdoor/disaster related themes (alternate power, outdoors & away-from-home operation, etc.).  Rather, this year there's a simplified point system (1 point phone contact, 2 points for digital keyboard contacts, 2x multiplier for QRP operation) and a set of seven Objectives:

1. Operate 100% on alternative power: Check, with a solar panel no less.  See left side of pic.
2. Operate away from home: Check, at Wright's Lake.
3. Deploy multiple antennas: Argh.  Did all ops on the EFHW QRP antenna.  Would've picked this one up if I'd just screwed the rubber duck antenna onto '817, it was right there on the table.  Interesting twist on the rules: they only say deploy multiple (i.e. n > 1) antennas, not actually make a contact.  So call CQ a couple of times on 70cm and check the box?  That seems a little... gamer-ey.
4. Make a satellite contact: Nope.  Maybe next year?  I keep saying this...
5. Operate on at least six different bands: Nope.  40, 20, 15, & 10 were open (mostly).  160 & 80 are primarily nighttime bands (and good luck with QRP power levels there), and VHF-up simplex is always a long shot here in NFL.
6. Send and receive at least 1 Winlink email: Nope.  Maybe next year?  I keep saying this...
7. Operate 6 continuous hours during the event: Nope.  Squeezed it all into the last 4 hours.  Better than nothing.

So, 2 of 7 Objectives, and a big 12 contacts – 8 phone, 4 digital.  Still had fun.  Maybe the weather'll be dry next year.  I really don't like a big tent having to dry out in my living room.  Looking on the upside, last year would've been 5 of 7 objectives (1,2,3,5,&7), so knocking them all out of the park next year is entirely possible.

ps: Log submitted to WFD's site.  Another year, another foray into the world of frozen operations.  Even if it was a dry & pleasant 60F on Sunday.

Weird of the Week

Two weird things crossed my path this week:

• Wild Apples: The 12 weirdest and rarest Macs ever made at ArsTechnica.  I've seen several of these in person, and while they were sort of interesting (some with unique features of dubious utility), they were seldom worth the asking price.  Mostly these are associated with the early-to-mid-1990's flailing seen prior to Jobs' 1998 re-entry at Apple.
• The Frenzy about the weirdest continent that never existed, Lemuria, at Atlas Obscura.  Sometimes name-checked on late night radio, but seldom actually explained.

So there they are, things that may have crossed your consciousness without explanation sometime in the vague past, now well explained.  Onward.

What the hell were they thinking?

Weather's Looking Soupy for WFD

I think the camping trip's a scrub.  Will go up to Wright's Lake mid-morning on Sunday, operate through to the 2pm EST (1900z) stop time.  Probably be down at the tables near the lake, in the day-use area.

Eh, still gonna be fun.

Get Yer Red/Blues On!

Your red/blue 3D glasses that is.  Today's APOD is a spectacular view of the Apollo 17 CM from the LEM.

You really ought to keep a pair of red/blue 3D glasses handy at your desk.  If you don't, you miss a lot, like a whole extra dimension.  Don't be a Flatlander.

Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton Plays the AYC

Last night, so if you weren't there you missed it.  Anyway, a mighty fun time was had by all.  I remember seeing him play in the FSU student union back in the 80's, then at the Biloxi Crawfish Festival in '06.  He was good then, and has only improved with time.  What's more, his whole stage act is great.  One minute he's belting out blues edging on blues-rock, then the next he's doing a snake oil salesman impression to promote his hot sauce (see merch table), then he's back to stirring his gumbo pot – with a bowl for everyone (long as it lasts) when they wind down for the evening.  Great listening, great fun.  Go see him if you can!

Links: Sauce Boss main page | Tour Dates | Apalachicola Yacht Club page

OSIRIS-REx Sampler Unlocked

Three and a half months along, NASA has unlocked but isn't quite into the asteroid sample canister.  Slow and steady progress though, and they're not inclined to make rash mistakes.  Two takes on the progress so far: Science Alert and CNN.  What's been found so far in the dust on the outside of the canister?  Water-bearing clays and carbon, both major components in a box-mix for making life.  Stay tuned.

Terry Bisson, R.I.P.

Not a lot to say, beyond this obit.  I really enjoyed They're Made Out of Meat and TVA Baby.  (BTW, the gargoyle in New Orleans is real.  I've seen it.  Picture at right.)  Onward.