Agent of Chaos

If the weather holds, look to the skies tonight between 8:05PM and 8:14PM if you're in the Detroit area.

The International Space Station will be making a *very* visible pass over the area. It'll be a very bright dot moving from the northwest to the southeast, and should be overhead around 8:08 to 8:10.

These passes are rare, so I figured I'd share with everyone.

"Operators' Wireless Telegraph & Telephone Hand - Book", Victor H. Laughter, 1918
This one was one of the biggest highlights, it's a great snapshot of the early days of wireless. If spark gap and arc gap transmissions weren't outright illegal, I'd love to duplicate some of these early circuits and build a coherer or two.


"B-52 Boeing Stratofortress", William G. Holder, 1975 - Just because old military factbooks are fun.

"The Dragonriders of Pern", Anne McCaffrey, hardback, 1980 - an omnibus edition of "Dragonflight", "Dragonquest" and "The White Dragon".

"A Brief History of Time", 10th anniversary edition, Stephen Hawking. - Just because I don't actually have a copy.

"Friday", Robert A. Heinlein, 1982, hardcover. Yes, it's a first edition. It's in pretty good shape, the dust jacket needs a little help. And I only paid a dollar for it.

It was good day at the bookstore today.

The controversial study conducted by Dr. Andrew Wakefield linking the MMR vaccine to autism lead to a lot of hippy-dippy types and tinfoil hatters not vaccinating their children and creating little elementary school aged disease vectors.

Now, it appears that Dr Wakefield manipulated his data.

Additional information here

So, given these allegations, we have someone who has made a career and a shitload of money over bad, manipulated data. And his advice and cause probably killed a few kids along the way too. Hopefully a suitable punishment can be devised if this turns out to be true.

If nothing else, he's in Texas, and I'm sure they can come up with something creative down there for him.

One of the things in life I take great joy in doing is hunting through bookstores full of old books and used books.

The Troy Library has a "Friends of the Library" bookstore where people can donate books to. They then sell them for a dollar or five, depending on relative rarity and perceived worth by the bookstore staff.

Value being in the relative eye of the beholder, I greatly looked forward to hunting through the stacks when I found out about it while applying for a library card there.

So, on my first visit downstairs, I found the following:

Alfred Bester's "The Stars, My Destination"
"The Columbia History Of The World" (an utter doorstop of a book, it has to be five inches thick)
"Design Guidelines for Surface Mount Technology"
Three of James Herriot's veterinary memoirs novels.

And then the three best finds of the day:

Heinlein's "JOB: A Comedy Of Justice", 1st edition hardback, practically MINT.

and...

Volumes one and two of "A Treasury of Great Science Fiction". Hardback. Copyright 1959, Doubleday & Company. Many, many great science fiction classic short stories, including "Waldo" and "The Weapons Shops Of Isher".

All three of those were a dollar per book. To me, especially the Treasury volumes, they're priceless.

"An amateur practices until he gets it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong"

- Anon

Just because it's been going around and it's really amusing:


If you saw ME in a police car, what would you think I got arrested for?

I love how all the right-wingers on my FL are foaming right now, as well as in IRC.

I'm not happy with Obama, either. I have a feeling that we're going from a bunch of idiot deficit spenders to a bunch of idiot tax and spenders. We'll be going to a socalist state from a theocratically leaning state, I'm sure.

Frankly, if your guys had done a better job in office the past few years, perhaps McCain would have ended up giving his victory speech last night instead of a concession speech.

Police Taser sheep blocking traffic

This whole tasering thing has to stop. :)

I would absolutely LOVE it if a fictional TV show using radiation or nuclear materials as a plot device GOT THE SCIENCE RIGHT FOR ONCE.

CSI: NY is making me vaguely ill, the science is so bad. How bad, you might ask? They're saying things like "The radiation from her body contaminated him".

(EDIT: *chuckles* Well, they just made a reference to David Hahn and stolen smoke detectors, that at least is amusing)

I wonder given the financial news today if I should go over and spray-paint bulls-eyes on the sidewalks of Wall Street.


(Totally tasteless I know, but I'm wondering if I'm going to end up witnessing a major event in history during the rest of the time I'm here.)

Looking out the window this morning, we have apparently spotted the Lexington Avenue Fall Festival.

We will have to investigate this.

I am in NYC for the week. The first time back in four years.

This is also the first paid vacation I've had in over a year.

( We have started out this trip with the entirely appropriate large amounts of awesome, including They Might Be Giants )

And here I thought abstinence-only sex education was supposed to work:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/01/politics/horserace/entry4404184.shtml

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has announced that her 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnan. The announcement is “intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child,” says the Reuters news service, which carried the first report.

In a statement, the Palin family says that Bristol Palin is “about five months pregnant” and that she intends to marry the father. “We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins said in the statement. "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”

Plans to marry the father, eh? One wonders if that was her intent, or if mommy is making her do that as to not sacrifice any political capital.

At this point in the electoral game, I'm done.

Given the bullshit around both candidates, I'm largely considering anyone who votes for either of the two major candidates to be somewhat nuts.

I'm highly considering voting for Mickey Mouse for president.

Obama is not the second coming of Christ.

McCain isn't The Fearless Leader everyone wants him to be.

The Libertarians have all gone to the nuthouse.

People need to get over their delusions and realize what pathetic excuses for candidates we have this election.

I'm voting local, but screw the presidential race at this point. The country, no matter who wins, will get the loser they deserve, for putting up with the flip-flopping mealymouthed bullshit espoused by the idiots running for office.

Only Apple can make people go insane over a cellular telephone.

I still want to know what's so wonderfully amazing about the damned iPhone.

However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

George Washington, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

I am at the con, are you at the con, which is not?

NOTACON!

http://www.notacon.org

Spent part of last night contemplating goofy electrical hacks and wandering around the roof of the hotel. Put up an antenna and happened to be the guy who had channel-lock pliers at the right place at the right time. Twice.

I'm having a blast and things haven't even officially started yet.

Here's to my darling wife, fuzzyjelly, who is celebrating her birthday today!

It's a major "milestone" birthday, but I'll be polite and not mention which one it is. *grin*

May you have many, many more of them, love, and may they always be happy and care-free.

One of my latest steam-venting-type-things is Team Fortress 2. I'm not always the biggest FPS fan, but I love that game.

Anyways, someone did a bunch of TF2 related valentines, that I, at least, found highly amusing, and for all the other TF2 nuts on my friendslist, I thought I'd share:

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/spyvalentine.png
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/heavyvalentine.png
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/scoutvalentine2.png
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/pyrovalentine.png
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/medicvalentine.png

It feels like imps are pounding on my head with an assortment of machinist's hammers.

This would be the second head cold I've gotten this winter season. Go figure.