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Monthly Archives: May 2005

Hanging out at Hains Point

Monday, May 30, 2005

I took my newly repaired skates (replaced broken brake harness and rotated wheels) out for a spin today, going up Pennsylvania Ave to the White House, around the Ellipse and down the Mall to Lincoln Memorial, then around West and East Potomac Parks to Hains Point, where I plopped down in the grass, shot photos [...]

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Concert at the Capitol

Sunday, May 29, 2005

(Uploaded by brownpau.)
I opted to skip the Memorial Day Concert at the Capitol and go skating instead, so you can stop looking for me on PBS now.

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The DC Weather Bubble

Saturday, May 28, 2005

I was so sure it was going to rain. The radar showed angry red patches of precipitation moving east-northeast from Virginia towards the District. As I walked around the Capitol Reflecting Pool, a brisk south wind rustled the trees, and gray cumulonimbus clouds loomed in the west*.
But it didn’t rain. It got dark and gray [...]

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Pandora Hogs the Sheets

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Behind Pandora you can see a webcam, a Norfolk Island Pine, and my pinning wall. More of her on Flickr: here and here. The peach comforter, by the way, was bought secondhand from a Dupont Circle couple for $10 via Craigslist.

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Voyager in the Heliosheath

Friday, May 27, 2005

It’s the scientific consensus that, out at the edge of the solar system, Voyager 1 has crossed the termination shock — possibly again — and is now sailing through the heliosheath, the outer layer of our sun’s bubble of influence. That far from the sun, the solar wind “bunches up” as it slows down against [...]

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More from Cassini

Friday, May 27, 2005

The science and imagery coming out of Cassini at Saturn is simply staggering and beautiful.

First full panorama of Titan’s surface from the descending Huygens probe. (previous imagery here.)
Enceladus and the Rings almost edge-on.
Dione and the Rings.
Enceladus and the Rings again.
Titan’s Mysterious Red Spot.
Wide angle shot of Saturn’s southern hemisphere.

Wow. Now that almost* makes the NASA-allocated [...]

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Opportunity Working Its Way Out

Friday, May 27, 2005

On Mars, Opportunity is literally spinning its wheels, carefully extricating itself from the deep sand dune it’s been stuck in for the last few weeks. The rover was going backwards at the time — they alternate forward and reverse driving due to wheel well lubrication issues — so now the rover is actually moving “forward” [...]

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History of the Mac Startup Sound

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A brief history of the Mac startup sound: in which Music Thing interviews Jim Reekes, creator of the famous chord.
It’s a C Major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible …. I wanted something really fat, heavy bass, high notes, and a sharp attack. The chiffy sound was from pan pipes [...]

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Ring For Sale

Thursday, May 26, 2005

If you thought my long-ago breakup was bad, check out this eBay auction on a diamond ring for a botched engagement. Ouch.
The good news is that he’s back on his feet and happily recovering. We at #mefi are of the mind that he’s much better off now, having escaped from a context where “carats = [...]

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Bit of a Trough

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

The writing lobe has been sort of inactive lately, sorry. Creative energies at a low, I suppose; finding it difficult to devote attention to more than just linklog entries. Hard to even write complete sentences. But I’ll be out of this rut soon. I just need to sleep earlier, watch less TV, and stop obsessively [...]

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