rare bird

Space news from slashdot: knovis writes "The Ansari X Prize is being attempted at this moment: 9:30am EST. Bert Rutan and Paul Allen's Scaled Composites is preparing to make the first of 2 launches necessary. For the uninitiated, the X-Prize is a $10M prize available to the first entirely privately funded organization that creates a vehicle that travels to 100km above the earth's surface (low earth orbit) twice within 2 weeks. IIRC, SpaceShipOne is planning 3 flights for that 2 week period, for safety. Best of luck to Private Spaceflight. Did anyone else notice that Virgin Galactic has just been launched?" Project Zen writes "MSNBC has an article about how the seats won't be filled with people but mementos of the crew ." Several readers sent links to CNN's story on the flight , and space.com's continuing coverage , including by webcam; NASA TV also has an eye on the launch . (Watch this space for updates.) Update: 09/29 15:57 GMT ...

I just changed the publishing settings to display 99 posts at a time (ergo, every post I've written so far). If you're new to rare bird be sure to check out the older posts! Why 99 posts? 9 is too few, and 999 is too many (at least right now).

I just saw my boss surfing the web, even though he's told me many times not to. Now I don't feel quite so guilty about catching up on the latest at slashdot . While I'm at work. I do still feel guilty though. Darn that calvinism! What do you think?

There's a local jazz organist playing tonight and tommorow night at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul. Name is Billy Holloman. He's been playing Tuesday nights for over 10 years, and this is his first CD. 'Sounds' good! The website has a link to his CD and how to get to the AQ. www.billyholloman.com

Firefox, the open-source, commercial-grade browser from Mozilla is already overtaking IE's market share. Listen to Walt Mossberg, and obey: “I suggest dumping Microsoft's Internet Explorer , which has a history of security breaches. I recommend instead using Mozilla Firefox . It’s not only more secure but also more modern and advanced, with tabbed browsing and a better pop-up ad blocker.” — Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal, Sept 16

Maybe they should have called it Icarus! This story is about Genesis, the space probe sent to collect solar data. It crashed in the desert instead of being "caught" by a plane as was NASA's plan. In other space news, two new planets have been discovered that are not gas giant like Jupiter, but resemble icy, rocky planets like Neptune. As our telescopic prowess increases, our ability to detect Earth-size planets becomes possible: September 2, 2004: The race to find distant new “Earths” heated up considerably yesterday with the detection of two of the smallest planets ever detected outside the Solar System. Whereas previous extrasolar planets discovered were almost exclusively gas giants, similar in Jupiter and Saturn and between 100 and 300 times the mass of the Earth, the newly found planets are much smaller – only 15 to 20 Earth masses. This places them in the mass range of Uranus and Neptune, somewhere between the gas gia...

This is the link to Alan Parsons' official site. Pretty cool, it has an introductory video (he's gotten older, but is still shy), plenty of features, and links to the new album and the fan club site (which I referenced earlier). It looks like he went online for the first time recently.

Senator Kerry calls this a "tragic milestone," and the most catastrophic of the administration's mistakes made so far. Regardless of his mistakenly voting for the war at the time, he's right. For him to turn against the Iraq war is a flip-flop I would be happy with. Hopefully he has an exit strategy, even though he's not telling us about it at the moment. This is why Bush must be defeated in November. I realize the economy is an important issue, but compared to 1000++ dead soldiers? Come on. Not to mention 7,000++ wounded, and the 11,000++ estimated by the Iraq Body Count . This is a slam dunk, as George Tenet would say. Prediction: if Bush is [re]elected, the U.S. will engage in pre-emptive war against Iran and/or North Korea. Is that really what we want?

Here are two blogs definitely worth checking out. Soon as I catch up with answering comments on this blog, I'll be commenting on theirs. mi vida poco Knightopia More To Come...

Last weekend I completed ripping my Alan Parsons CD collection and started listening to it at work off my portable media player. While listening, I figured I might as well google Alan, maybe there would be some interesting historical stuff on the web. As it turns out, Alan Parsons is still kicking and has a new album out! Even better, he's doing electronica now! I'll be receiving it shortly and will do a review. This will be the first record without his long-time bandmates Ian Bairnson, and Stuart Elliott. The new album will take Alan in a new direction and into the world of electronica. Artists appearing on this record include: Nortec Collective, The Crystal Method, Shpongle, PJ Olsson, and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

Q : So what do you think is a killer app right now? A : Probably Picasa . It's the best photo viewer/organizer I've ever seen. More than that, the interface for it is as good as anything I've ever seen for the PC. As good as Mac. I hope this is the future of PC software. Q : You say you're voting for John Kerry. Doesn't that make you a liberal? You say you're a libertarian. Why aren't you voting for Michael Badnarik ? A : That's a good question. I'm not a liberal because I'm an economic conservative. I think markets, not governments, are the source of our prosperity and happiness, to a very large extent. They're also one of the keys to world peace. When nations trade with each other they fight less. Imagine for a moment - a truly global trading bloc, without tariffs or duties. No one wants to fight because everyone is interdependent. Would this not be as close to a utopia as we will ever come (short of the second coming)? World trade...

It looks like if you don't have a Blogger account you can only publish anonymously. Maybe just put your first name in the comment area to claim credit (or blame). Or sign up for a Blogger account - it's free, and gives you a place to stick your photos online, if nothing less (using Hello ).

This is me 

This is from an interview with me, done recently by rare bird magazine. Q : So, what's up with this blogging thing? A : Well, you know, I like to write, and - I've never been published before, so this seemed like a good way to get published without having to deal with rejection letters. I mean, who wants to deal with that, right? Some friends of mine, and my wife, also helped by egging me on to do it. And, I am an English major, and that's got to be good for something, and besides, it's just a lot of fun. You should try it sometime. I also have a firm conviction that my ideas and opinions are crucially important to the survival of civilization, and I want to give civilization a chance, so I'd better get those ideas out there. I'm not going to run for president, so I figure this is the next best thing. Q : Ah. You're not an egotist, are you? A : Well - no, of course not. Q : All right, fine. You say you're into technology. Prove it - what are the tools y...

ABOUT: ME In the beginning, Blog created the heavens and the earth. Blog said, "Let there be text," and there was hypertext. In hypertext was life, and that life was the light of everyone. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. This is my first time blogging, so I'll include a biographical sketch, including schools, jobs, interests, beliefs, and politics. Birth: I was born in 1972 . The longer I live, the more I think historical context is important. I grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota. I agree with Hugh Hewitt when he calls our state "Minne-so-cold." Schools: After high school, I went to the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) and studied English Literature. In 1991, I traveled to Birmingham , England, for a year studying abroad. (It was fun to be in England - live Shakespeare done by pros! - but not Birmingham specifically. Birmingham is where the Industrial Revolution began, and it shows.) I graduated...