Entries from October 2006

Dear NASA: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Date October 31, 2006

Happy news!

Hubble is saved. NASA has just announced that it will run a servicing mission to the ageing space telescope after more than two years of speculation about its fate.
NASA administrator Michael Griffin said the last three shuttle missions have provided convincing data that a mission to Hubble can be run safely.

Notes

Date October 31, 2006

There are just a couple of things on my mind that (in light of earlier posts and responses) I want to share before I get back to the various pieces of work I need to be doing today.
Re whatever might have been going on in the ST:TNG offices as the first season got underway: […]

One of those headlines you couldn’t make up

Date October 29, 2006

Somebody at the BBC deserves a cookie for this one.
Transgender MP in toilet fracas
Pity, though: I had hoped it was a British MP. Turns out the story hails from Italy.
An Italian opposition MP and former showgirl has expressed outrage after meeting a transgender colleague in the parliament’s ladies’ toilets.
Elisabetta Gardini, spokeswoman for former PM Silvio […]

Writing “Where No One Has Gone Before”

Date October 28, 2006

More info about this has been added to the original post, if you’re interested: scroll down, or click here.
var page_name = \’update post on WNOHGB\’; var invisible = \’yes\’; function sE(){return true;}window.onError=sE;var wtsui=\’dduane\’; try{var wtsb=top.document;var wtsr=wtsb.referrer;var wtsu=wtsb.URL;} catch(e){var wtsb=document;var wtsr=wtsb.referrer;var wtsu=wtsb.URL;} var wtsrn=Math.random();var qry=wtsui+\’:1::\’+escape(wtsr)+\’::\’ +screen.width+\’x\’+screen.height+\’::\’+screen.colorDepth+\’::\’ +escape(page_name)+\’::\’+invisible+\’::\’+wtsrn+\’::\’+escape(wtsu); document.write(\’‘);

Bee One

Date October 28, 2006

Well, maybe.

Melittosphex burmensis, which has been trapped in amber for the past hundred million years, is the oldest bee fossil ever discovered. It lived in northern Myanmar (Burma) in Southeast Asia about 35 million to 45 million years earlier than the next oldest specimens known to science.

Wow…
 

Date October 28, 2006

Bottlebag. Very neat!

Two of my favorite things in the same place

Date October 28, 2006

…But Reese’s peanut butter cups would have nothing on this confection.
“Get your gold off of my chocolate.”
“No, you get your chocolate out from under my gold!”
(…pauses to make note of T-shirt slogan: “I’d sooner be in Valrhona than Valhalla.”)
Technorati Tags: chocolate, Delafee, gold

“Two Hobbit movies planned”

Date October 28, 2006

Oh really?
MGM chief operating officer Rick Sands revealed the plans this past weekend during a trade show in Orlando, Florida, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
That’ll make Peter happy, if true. (And a lot of the rest of us…)
Technorati Tags: Hobbit, movie, film, Hollywood Reporter, New Line, Tolkien

Date October 28, 2006

Mighty Beltran has struck out (mutter)

Date October 28, 2006

Turtles got wheels.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Where No One Has Gone Before

Date October 28, 2006

I just want to take a moment to link to this, in which the excellent Wil Wheaton gives us an in-depth analysis of the episode.
While reading it I had to stop several times to clean the tea off the keyboard, and (since Peter is still snoozing upstairs, having had a late writing night) restrain myself […]

LI Cold Cases, GoogleMapped

Date October 24, 2006

I read the Long Island newspaper Newsday partly to keep an eye on the part of the world where I grew up, and partly because the father of one of my characters (apparently) works for it. This morning, though, on their website, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before.

Newsday’s front page features a Google map […]