2020 Hindsight

Bryce being put out to pasture? And what about MacOS?

The Corel product description page has a new box design for Bryce 5. The order page has a new, low (fire sale?) price: $79.

Significantly missing from the product system requirements is a bullet point for MacOS. WTF? Corel was bragging all over the place about carbonizing Bryce for OS X. Why aren't they selling the Mac product? They *have* it, I know. I use it.

Astronaut photography of Earth from Space

At yesterday's lecture, retired astronaut Rick Searfoss showed an amazing image of the Grand Canyon from space, just after a snowfall dusted the north and south rims white.

I asked how to get the image, and he gave pointers, which led to link above. You can search the photo database by a clickable map, by mission/film roll number, by geographical characteristics.

Also: the site for Earth Sciences and Image Analysis at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

one year ago today: Scrubbed Launch

The link goes to a 5/31 report of the scrubbed Shuttle launch attempt on May 30. The one year ago today blog entry has pictures of hob-nobbing with astronauts. Actual launch took place on June 5.

Exactly a year later (give or take a few days), another launch from the cape: MER 1 - Mars Exploration Rover (launch date moved to June 8). That'll make two Mars launches in one week, with Mars Express due to launch June 2 on a Soyouz rocket.

Columbia foam impact test - ouch!

The test: shoot foam at high speed at a fiberglass Shuttle leading edge panel. See what happens. Ouch.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) reported the initial foam impact test on the Enterprise’s fiberglass leading edge panel showed significant effects.

The foam struck the lower left wing portion of panel six causing the T-Seal between panels six and seven to lift and shift toward panel seven. This resulted in a 22-inch opening between panel six and the T-Seal. The width varied from the thickness of a dime to more than a quarter inch.

There's also a CNN story on the test.

BTW, yesterday, I went to a lecture at CalTech, by Rick Searfoss , who was Commander of the STS-90 NeuroLab mission aboard Columbia in 1998. He spoke on the human side of human space flight. I took copious notes, some of which I'll report here later, Murphy permitting.

Ted Turner on upcoming FCC Decision

The FCC decision thing is June 2. Damn. That's Monday! Too late to write letters for the mail, time to fire up the fax machine. [via dangerousmeta]

If these rules had been in place in 1970, it would have been virtually impossible for me to start Turner Broadcasting or, 10 years later, to launch CNN.

The Guardian does Salam (he'll have a guest blog)

Salam Pax mentioned doing an interview with the Guardian a little while back.

A day before that I sold my soul to the devil. I talked to Rory from the Guardian.

Look, he paid for a great lunch in a place which had air-conditioning and lots of people from foreign. [emphasis mine; see below]

The resulting Guardian Story: reporterly descriptions of his bedroom, some quotes about the risks he took to post. The story ends with an edited version (italics from above removed) of Salam's post re: the Guardian interview. [via Buzz Machine]

A day before that I talked to Rory from the Guardian. He paid for a great lunch in a place which had air-conditioning and lots of people from foreign.

Why the edit? After all the discussion about NYTimes, w/ stories of what it's like to be a NY Times Stringer (freelancer), I'm feeling mighty suspicious of anything I read. Moreso if multiple bloggers comment on it, teasing out discrepancies. The Guardian story implies that Salam's no Kaycee Nicole , Al. So what I wanna know is, what is the Guardian paying Salam for his guestblog?

Reading L.A.

Dave Ulin in the L.A. Times, summer reading article. Lots of LA/So Cal titles. Here's an excerpt that cheers me (from the "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" department):

Cris Mazza's "Indigenous: Growing Up Californian," a memoir of a San Diego County childhood in the 1960s and 1970s, plays against one of the most prevalent California stereotypes by focusing on the state as a place to come from, rather than one to come to.

I started counting the number of friends I have who are (also) indigenous Southern Californians. It's a small number.

L.A. Observed

a good LA-based blog. [via LA Examiner]

poetry readings in los angeles

Was looking around for a coffeehouse to meet halfway. The chosen destination shows up on this list, which has venues for poetry readings. Posting/filing it here for future reference.

Happy Birthday, Julie

Julie of Geeks and Happy Chaos puts another candle on her birthday cake. (Heh. The current Geeks cartoon [permalink] is based on something that happened to me.)