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Had a questions over the weekend from some family "So when is this thing going to come down?" "Uh, I dunno, ask NASA." And here's their answer at the UARS mission update page. Latest answer: Sept 23rd, give or take a day.
And if you don't know what any of this is about, go read up on the UARS article at Wikipedia by clicking here.
Cue the Man or Astro-Man? music:
Junk Satellite
[long instrumental]
frenzy eternal
it could fall tonight
I think it's unplugged
junk satellite
[more instrumental]
frenzy eternal
it could fall tonight
I think it's unplugged
junk satellite
[yet more instrumental]
frenzy eternal
it could fall tonight
I said it's unplugged
junk satellite
[bunch more instrumental]
frenzy eternal
it could fall tonight
I think it's unplugged
tonight
as if it could scramble
I feel it flipping the channels
on a black box
but nothing stops
look around
did you break it off or have to switch it off
[more instrumental]
way down
at the heart of the station
they cut communication
with a metal sphere
that some folks fear gone dead
early warning flashing saying it was lost
yeah, something coming down in a broken satellite
it's coming down in a broken satellite
it's coming down in a broken satellite
it'll hit the ground
it'll be alright
tonight
tonight
tonight
tonight
it's coming down in a broken satellite
it's coming down in a broken satellite
it's coming down in a broken satellite
it'll hit the ground
it'll be alright
[theremin solo]
[theremin hum & buzz]
From a stupid email I received today at work:
Q: How many scientists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They use them as controls in double blind trials.
Q: How many academics does it take to change a lightbulb ?
A: None. That is what their students are for. (from Philip Clarke in New Scientist)
A: Five: One to write the grant proposal, one to do the mathematical modeling, one to type the research paper, one to submit the paper for publishing, and one to hire a student to do the work.
Q: How many laboratory heads (senior researchers, etc.) does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Five; one to change the lightbulb, the other four to stand around arguing whether he/she is taking the right approach.
Q: How many research technicians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One, but it'll probably take him/her three or four tries to get it right.
Q: How many post-doctoral fellows does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One, but it'll probably take three or four tries to get it right because he/she will probably give it to the technician to do.
Q: How many graduate students does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Only one, but it may take upwards of five years for him to get it done.
A: It all depends on the size of the grant.
A: Two and a professor to take credit.
A: 1/100. A graduate student needs to change 100 lightbulbs a day.
A: I don't know, but make my stipend tax-free, give my adviser a $100,000 grant of the taxpayer's money, and I'm sure he can tell me how to do the work for him so he can take the credit for answering this incredibly vital question.
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They're only funny because they sting a little. And they only sting because they are, at some basic level, uncomfortably close to the truth.
All-around great lady, known regionally for the best king cakes ever (don't take my word for it, she won WWL's contest), but know locally for much, much more. Suddenly dead at 64.
Here is the obit in The Echo, and here is a real article about her and her life.
Ma'am, you will be missed.
An old T.V. news story from 1979, seen here. Six and a half minutes, worth every second.
I've always been a big fan of Sam Fuller, but just didn't know until this year. Two movies steered me toward him. First, Pulp Fiction. I'd always felt that Quentin Tarrantino was copying (or at least borrowing way heavily) from an older genre. Then there's my Dad, who put me onto Fuller's The Big Red One. Dad, a WWII vet in the 1st Division, always liked that movie as one of the least romanticized WWII flicks made in the post-war period. Watching the extended cut, then watching the additional features on the disk steered me straight into the maw of Fuller's works.
I've been watching my way through them ever since. To date, The Big Red One, The Steel Helmet, I Shot Jesse James, Pickup on South Street, and just last night The Baron of Arizona. I'm not going into individual reviews, but place them all in the 3 to 3.5 star range. The titles above are Wikipedia links if you want to see what they're about. Caution though, they do have some spoilers. Next up in the Netflix queue is The Naked Kiss. Although I haven't done an exhaustive search, pretty much everything he made can be found over at Netfilx.
So if you're a Tarrantino fan who's always been slightly disappointed since the glory days of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and can do with a little less of the oh-so-90's irony, go look up some Fuller movies.
