An amusing caption at an educational exhibit on plants in the National Botanical Garden.
Photo taken with a Palm Zire 71.
Let’s Roll
Update: Heh, check out Google’s logo.
I’ve grabbed and grafted some stereo images from Spirit’s raw gallery and made a couple of wiggle animations: navcam looking back at lander, front hazcam shot.
Unwanted Irony
I’m still recovering from a mild virus that hitched back with me from the Philippines, and my lungs have been giving up their dead for about a week now. Last night, I cracked open a bottle of store-brand Tussin syrup (cough suppresant) and quickly chugged down two teaspoons. A few drops took the wrong route, however, and left me hacking and coughing for about five minutes afterward.
Pomography
Speaking of postmodern Christianity, Alex Arnold has a series of posts on just that topic.
(And a side note: when you write “postmodern” as its hip abbreviation, “PoMo,” be sure to capitalize that “M.” With some fonts, “pomo” looks just a bit too much like another word.)
Just One?
To answer a question Amy asked me last week: one megapixel. That’s the resolution of the panoramic camera aboard Spirit. The secret to those pretty Mars pictures, however, is flawless lenses and larger CCD sensors.
Allusionism
Garver demonstrates intertextual relations via Scripture viewed through the lens of modern allusion. I’m not a big fan of “postmodern” Christianity with its insistence on over-sacramentalizing popular culture, but the illustrated intertextualization is an excellent demonstration of Scripture working similarly within its original context: referencing culturally relevant motifs of the day to present a familiar picture of God to his people.
To make a tenuous connection, I’ve been reading Josh Stiffdrink’s (PG-13!) ruminations on creationism lately, and he has a case for reading Genesis 1 as an inspired adaptation of Egyptian creation mythology for the sake of the Israelites, who had just been recently Exodusized from slavery under Pharaoh. Now, I myself am a fencesitter on the issue, constantly vaccilating between young-earth creationism, theistic evolution, and everything in between; but if we are to make the argument that Scripture must be read in context (e.g. that we draw upon popular apocalyptic symbolism of the early First Century rather than today’s Middle East headlines in our interpretations of John’s Revelation) shouldn’t we apply a similar filter to our readings of the Genesis creation story? Would such a filter necessarily lead us to an old-earth view of creation?
Followup: I could have phrased that last question a whole lot better; Josh’s comment hits the mark: “I think if you followed the interpretation I put forth, you wouln’t try to use Genesis to figure out how old the earth is. Period.”
Martian-Go-Round
Spirit has a color panorama of Mars. You can also see it in Quicktime VR.
The final cord connecting Spirit to its lander has been cut, and the rover is now turning in place in preparation for its roll onto the red soil. Latest photos, maps, and animations here.
Deconvolve This
“diffract fluffy dodecahedron
bolshevist heretofore fondle astronaut
compulsory biracial germantown
covert eskimo material
b</bluefish>u</deconvolve>y<bismuth>
amen”
Welcome to spam’s new can: “hash-busting”: long strings of randomized words which spammers send to try and confound your mail application’s spam filters. Joke’s on them, of course. Mail filters don’t just hash out specific words, they also check other indicators, like header info, linked images, and word patterns. (Word patterns like, oh, say, hash-buster strings?) And the more junk the spammers use to embed their pitches, the less likely that these pitches will be understood by those poor people who still believe them. Hopefully this is where the strategy self-destructs.
Random text strings found from a Filipino cult group whose mailing list has been completely overrun with spam.
Related: Filmgoerjuan, “banned CD” spam, and the moral decay of society.
The Greatest Show on Earth Part II
And how could I forget dear old Ping? He is one of Ferdie Marcos’ own creations, a dark and ruthless police chief who attempted to demolish Gloria by exposing the First Husband’s marital-financial immoderacies, while Gloria’s administration attempted to demolish him by dredging up dubious connections to drug trading, and his bloody record of human rights abuses. For Ping’s sly, crafty efforts to undermine Gloria’s authority, his own party rewards him with betrayal, trading him for the more popular FPJ as party standard-bearer. I almost feel sorry for Ping in his underdog position, abandoned and discarded, without a running mate or a power base. Almost.
Indeed, I was ready to hold the opposition in grudging admiration; surely, I thought, this is a concerted front. After months of apparent infighting to rivet public attention on their party, Angara will suddenly negotiate a “compromise” between Ping and FPJ, one dropping to the running mate of the other, thus warming the Philippine electorate’s collective heart with a gracious display of political selflessness, and greatly boosting chances for a straight party ticket.
Alas, Filipino politics has never been that suave. The squabbling appears to be genuine, the “united” opposition failing to rise above its own dark origins as a hot tub for self-motivated anti-Gloria/anti-Ramos conspirators and has-been Marcos loyalists.
Gringo? Puppet. Has-been. Johnny? Puppetmaster pulling the money strings, but still, has-been. Raul? Poor Raul! The tempest has knocked him about, so that his voice is almost completely lost in the sound and fury. He could be so much more, but right now he seems to be just the lesser evil.
The outcome: FPJ will probably win in 2004. Then, chaos. As usual.
The Greatest Show On Earth
Philippine politics is crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I’m trying to come up with a summary of recent events in Philippine politics, and the unfolding plot and cast of characters sounds like a bad, drawn-out telenovela. I don’t know where to begin.
Okay, another movie star, FPJ, runs for president. He’s a close friend of the last movie star who became president: Erap, who was suspected of massive corruption four years ago, went through an impeachment trial lopsided in his favor, and was subsequently ousted in a dramatic extraconstitutional revolt. Now, FPJ takes another showbiz personality for his running mate: TV broadcaster Loren, one of the most vocal advocates against Erap’s continued presidency during the impeachment trial. Incensed by this, Miriam, one of FPJ’s supposed political allies and a fiery-but-unstable senator who stubbornly supported Erap, jumps parties, joining forces with Gloria and her K-4 squad. Such a move would have been unthinkable just over three years ago, when Miriam helped stoke the flames of the violent, abortive “Edsa 3” riot against Gloria. Now, with the old issue of FPJ’s nationality being called into question, his backers are ready to throw his wife, Susan, into the fray, simply on the basis of her immense silver-screen superstar popularity.
It’s just so bizarre. The story never gets so weird that it can’t get any weirder, nor does it ever get so bad that it can’t get worse. I’m still on the edge of my seat, wondering what happens next.
Update: Apparently it was a really bad joke.