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.

Winter Field Day, Right Around The Corner

Stay tuned for details and updates, but the current plan is to do this at Wright's Lake again.

Posts about last year's WFDxpedition to Wright's Lake: one  two  three  four

Official WFD web site here.

Bike Helmets, One More Time

It's a new year, it's been a while, and this guy gently explains why he used to not but now always:

OK, enough.  On with the day... and the new year!

New Year's on Zulu Time

There was a New Year's party last night I was invited to, with an interesting twist: the new year was rung in on UTC/Greenwich/Zulu time, i.e. 7pm EST.  Festivities commenced at 6pm, and a few minutes before midnight Zulu, we dialed in the BBC's World Service via the web and listened on an iPad linked to a Bluetooth speaker.  A year end wrap-up story concluded, the news announcer dryly mentioned that it was midnight and hence now 2024, then the bells of Big Ben chimed.  Everyone toasted the new year, and the party disbanded shortly afterward.  I was comfortably asleep on the sofa by 10:30, though several others were off to various other New Year's parties.

The hosts and I originally had wanted to listen in via shortwave, but the schedule out of Ascension Island's West Africa transmitter, which we can sometimes receive here, unfortunately did not cover the midnight time slot.  Probably just as well.  Once we started discussing what it would take to receive those signals, I don't think the hostess was all that keen on my proposal to set up a wire antenna in their front yard and run coax in through a window.  Had it been possible though, it would have been very cool.