Been busy with a few things of late. One of those is the nuclear pulse propulsion book. The first three chapters are now done (excepting some editing) and will be shipped off to the publisher shortly for review.
Some panoramas I put together. The last one shows the unusual series of linear clouds that covered the area tonight; the 180+ degree scope of the panorama warped the clouds into arches. Descriptions of the individual photos are HERE.
These are of course greatly ensmallered from the originals. They’d probably look snazzy printed out in large format. Feel free to try to bribe me!
Today was another Wacky Anomalous Weather Day. I took a bunch of photos, but they require some processing into panoramas… a slow process on my now-defunct PC, and a glacial one on my antiquated laptop. I currently have it chugging through some panos from the recent trip back east as well as through the fields of Paradise yesterday.
Anyway, one cloud in particular caught my attention. A helical cloud. Never saw one of those before. Sadly, I only got a few distant photos of it… in the time it took me to get the telephoto lens, it had evaporated.
A flying robot that tracks *you.* But it doesn’t follow you, it leads you, the idea being that it helps you set a pace while you’re out jogging. The robot tracks you visually by keeping an eye on a specially patterned t-shirt. One is left to wonder what it does when it loses track of that special target… does it hover? Orbit around? Commit suicide?
Joggobot, The Companion Drone That Makes You Run Faster, Longer, Harder
Seems to me, a more entertaining concept would be to make it into a game of robotic “tag.”
As seen from the Hinode spacecraft.
Ashes and dust and thirst there is, and pits, pits pits, and methlabs, thousands of methlabs. Nothing but zombies and violent racist gun nuts and polygamist theocrats as far as the eye can see. If you are from LA or NYC or some such similar civilized bastion of progressive thinking, it’s best if you just stay away. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Vietnam Vet doesn’t back down from gunman
“What is wrong with them? I got drafted to go to Vietnam, I didn’t have a choice. They got all the opportunities in the world now to make something of themselves but they don’t want it,” he said.
Best.
Graduation
Speech.
EVER.
You’re Not Special
UPDATE: Now YouTubeified…
[youtube _lfxYhtf8o4]
UPDATE for the purposes of blatherfication. Words mean things, but sometimes the meaning is subtle. “Unique” and “special” are words with similar, but distinct understood meanings. “Unique” is fairly objective; “special” tends to imply some sort of value judgement. For example: The integer “14” is unique. There’s only the one. The integer 65 will never be 14. But even though 14 is unique, it is in no meaningful way I’m aware of “special.” “Special” would imply that 14 is more important in some way than 65. And… it’s just not.
Similarly; every human on earth is unique. Even twins. But special? Really… no. Obviously, a whole lot of people are truly special. But “a whole lot” is still a small number compared to a population pushing 7 billion. Most of us are filler.