A call to repair the Hubble Space Telescope

Congress Can Keep Our Eye on the Universe Open

This article represents the consensus of the scientific community (more or less). The Hubble is one of the most significant pieces of scientific equipment ever developed, at least in terms of its power to inspire. To leave it to die an early death would be a scandal.

learning experience

I learned a bunch of stuff this weekend.

1. It takes 35 minutes to walk to the train station from my place. (I thought it would take 30 minutes. Instead of arriving at 4 48, in time to scamper onto the train, I arrived at 4 53, just as the train was pulling away from the platform with leviathan-like inexorability.)
2. It is impossible to not drink when I'm with T-regina and Her Husband.
3. Even squiffy, I still got it when it comes to Settlers. (We play the game by very friendly rules, motivated mainly by H.H.'s desire to not have to sleep on the couch, but I don't need to steal their resource cards to whoop their asses.)
4. It is a Very Bad Idea to forget about the "no alcohol" label on medication. Bleurgh. (How does something like that slip one's mind?)
5. Bride and Prejudice is a fabulous movie. H.H. and T-Regina usually watch different movies when they go to the theatre, since H.H. likes cerebral and/or action movies while T is unabashed about her love for weepy chick flicks, but both of them loved this movie--although H.H.'s enthusiasm decreased when T started claiming that she was going to make him put dance routines to the silly songs he habitually sings for her, in order to make her own life more like a Bollywood musical.

What an educational weekend I've been having!

It's the dream

It's the dream we carry
that something wondrous will happen
that it must happen--
time will open
hearts will open
doors will open
mountains will open
spring will gush forth from the ground--
that the dream itself will open
that one morning we'll quietly drift
into a harbour we didn't know was there.

--Olav H. Hauge, translated from the Norwegian by Robert Hadin

Yahoo! News - Canada Says Will Stay Out of U.S. Missile Defense

Yahoo! News - Canada Says Will Stay Out of U.S. Missile Defense

Hurray! This is the best news I've heard in a while. The missile defence "shield" is scientifically, er, indefensible (rimshot), an utter waste of money, and almost certain to lead to worse international relations. Hurray for Paul Martin for standing up for reason and common sense.

More good news, sans link: Connecticut is getting closer to a civil-unions law. I saw this on the headlines on a newspaper box on the street and almost started crying right there. It's possible that not all is lost when it comes to politics around here.

Socks!

My mother e-mailed me a little while ago to make sure she had my address correct in her palm pilot, because she wanted to mail me some socks she had finished knitting for me. Quite aside from it being wonderful to have people I love make things for me, this was an e-mail that pleased me greatly: the combination of high and low tech was just too delicious.

And of course the socks themselves are lovely. The pattern is extremely intricate, and they're one of my favourite colours of blue.

As I write, my feet are both warm and happy. (yes, feet have feelings too.)

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

--Philippians 4:8 (NRSV, New Oxford Annotated Bible)

a new folk idiom

"As conflicted as a cat in a sushi restaurant full of rocking chairs."

Use it wisely.

article title

"Particle Emission in the Light Heavy-Ion Fusion Reactions."

um. So these are light heavy ions you're talking about...and they're fusion reactions but you're studying the particle emission....riiiiight.

And people say physics is logical.

...ooo, here's a good one. "Broken Symmetries and Chaotic Behavior in 26Al." It's a soap opera in the making.

heh. this one just sounds dirty. "Forbidden (p, d) Pickup to Stretched States of 26Al."

I am having way too much fun with this literature search.

Wow. A typo in the indexed categories means that this article is about not shell model calculations but smell model calculations. How come I've never gotten to do smell model calculations?

"Study of the Hard Part of Neutron Spectra in (p, n) Reactions." I guess someone already published on the easy part. Huh. Sucks to be them.

movie

Go see Hotel Rwanda.

I went to see it last night with some friends. I brought a bunch of Kleenexes because (a) it's about genocide and (b) I cry even at phone commercials. I barely needed them. Instead, half an hour in, I started shaking, and didn't stop until an hour after the movie was over.

By a wonderful coincidence, Paul Rusesabagina, the man on whose experiences the movie is based, is coming to speak here tomorrow. Can't wait.

And online-friend-of-online-friends Quinn has spent time at the tribunal that is trying to sort out this whole mess. Read her story.

Bodhisattva vow

The passions of delusion are inexhaustible. I vow to extinguish them.

The number of beings is endless. I vow to save them.

The Truth cannot be told. I vow to tell it.

The Way which cannot be followed is unattainable. I vow to attain it.