blivet 2.0

Two from New Scientist

Tough Earth bug may be from Mars

"A hardy microbe that can withstand huge doses of radiation could have evolved this ability on Mars.

That is the conclusion of Russian scientists who say it would take far longer than life has existed here for the bug to evolve that ability in Earth’s clement conditions. They suggest the harsher environment of Mars makes it a more likely birthplace.

The hardy bugs could have travelled to Earth on pieces of rock that were blasted into space by an impacting asteroid and fell to Earth as meteorites.

Deinococcus radiodurans is renowned for its resistance to radiation - it can survive several thousand times the lethal dose for humans. To investigate how the trait might have evolved, Anatoli Pavlov and his colleagues from the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St Petersburg tried to induce it in E. coli."

OK, I love science, but does anyone besides myself see a problem with developing a radiation resistant strain of our friend Mr. coli? Granted, the species is easy to work with, but how about using a microbe that is non-lethal? Just in case there is a lab accident.

"Hidden tree" the secret of Zen garden

"The secret of the mysterious, centuries-old appeal of the Ryoanji Temple garden in Kyoto has been solved, claim scientists in Japan. They think visitors unconsciously detect a "hidden" tree pattern, which explains why the sparse arrangement is so pleasing to the eye. (…)

To examine the spatial layout, they computed lines of symmetry in the scene. From the main viewing point in the garden, these lines form the trunk and branches of a tree. "We believe that the unconscious perception of this pattern contributes to the enigmatic appeal of the garden," the team write in the journal Nature."

"Students in my class, quit reading my weblog and pay attention to my lecture!"

Heh. John has an interesting class…

Emergence author’s Salon article

Euan blinked Steven Johnson’s Salon article from May, which was interesting (to me at least) when added to what Johnson wrote in Emergence. Not different, mind you, but watching him add blogs to his previous mix of ‘ants, brains, cities and software’ was interesting.

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Human-chimp DNA difference trebled

"It has long been held that we share 98.5 per cent of our genetic material with our closest relatives. That now appears to be wrong. In fact, we share less than 95 per cent of our genetic material, a three-fold increase in the variation between us and chimps.

The new value came to light when Roy Britten of the California Institute of Technology became suspicious about the 98.5 per cent figure. Ironically, that number was originally derived from a technique that Britten himself developed decades ago at Caltech with colleague Dave Kohne. By measuring the temperature at which matching DNA of two species comes apart, you can work out how different they are." (more)

[Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.172510699)]
[New Scientist]

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Must-See Metaphysics [NYTimes Magazine]

"I hate camp. I don’t enjoy dumb TV. I believe Aaron Spelling has single-handedly lowered SAT scores." [Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while talking about his new show, Firefly ] [via Eliot]

Autumnal Equinox

Autumnal Equinox is a national holiday in Japan, but we don’t pay much attention to it here. Still, today is the first day of Autumn and the daylight portion of the day will be decreasing in the northern hemisphere until 21 December. [memory jog by Susan]

Earworm?

I make up a lot of songs to sing to Ian, which probably means he will be seriously musically impaired in the future. Often the songs concern the animal cartoons on the front of his diapers. It is a little known fact (mercifully) that ‘chicky-bird diaper’ can be readily adapted to to the structure of Lennon and McCartney’s Paperback Writer. Now, Audrey says she can’t get my version out of her head. Oops, collateral spousal music damage in the diaper wars.

Red Planet

Susan has some pictures concerning the Mars Exploration Rover mission taken at JPL family day. [2020 Hindsight]

Thanks for posting those pictures, Susan! I look forward to January 2004 when the Rovers start their on-ground mission.

Ants

Dan is fighting ants in the house. That seems to be all too common in the West. Some things are guaranteed conversation starters in unfamiliar company. "So, what are you doing about ants in the house?" Not, "I must be the only one having ant problems…" You can safely assume whoever you are talking to has unwelcome visitors as well. The suggestions run the gamut from Boric Acid to flame throwers [kidding]. One thing is certain, air conditioning mechanics and exterminators are busy here in the desert.

Another cute baby

Young Mr. VanDyk looks smashing in his booties. Sssh. [VFIH]

Banned Books Week

Craig notes that Banned Books Week started yesterday. As you would expect from him, Craig has several other pointers about censorship at BookNotes. [Craig]

It looks like that new dog of his’ll hunt.

Another chronological milestone

Rosanna was one month old yesterday. What a cute baby. [genehack diary]

Age=n+1

I would be remiss if I did not note that today is Doug Miller’s Birthday. Happy Birthday, Doug! As they say, ‘it’s in the mail.’

Later: Yi! Not all birthdays are happy days. Apparently the meteorological dieties got more than a bit out of hand in Indiana, where Doug lives. I hope everyone is all right. "Meteorologists still don’t know how many tornadoes we’re talking about yet, but there’s no doubt that several were involved. There’s a 140 mile long track of destruction from Vincennes to Muncie, passing through Indianapolis." [Erehwon Notebook]

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wood s lot to go on hiatus…

Mark is going to be absent from wood(’)s lot for a bit. It verges on being calamitous indeed. If it were simultaneous with garret and a few others I would - what - have to talk to people or something to find out what was going on in the world and worth reading. You all can prevent this, the power is in your hands. Don’t make me grovel.

Ablogamous patient bikes to work

Susan has great news concerning the recovery of one who had major surgery 12 weeks ago.

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3 Las Vegas Bloggers

Sigh.I just blew away two screens of text when I hit the wrong key combination. Like Chris Locke says, “we write at night when we should be sleeping, and it shows.”

I am on the left, D. C. Thornton in the middle, and Michael Bernstein on the right.

I had various witty things to say, but they are gone now. Both D.C. and Michael are members of SNAFFU, the Southern Nevada Area Fantasy Fiction Union, and we talked about that and geek cred and other stuff. I’m glad I went and will do so again.

Deploying

I’m off to the Blog Meetup. Y’all have fun in your neck of the woods. I’ll catch Enterprise when I get back. [edit: fixed url]

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Blog Meetup

This time it will be at T.G.I. Friday’s, 4570 West Sahara Ave., in Las Vegas. I would like to make this one. You know you’re a geek when a deciding factor is a potential conflict with the season 2 primere of Enterprise in real-time. Still, I would like to meet DC and there is this thing called a vee cee r I have heard about that would solve the dilemma. I RSVP’d to tip the total to four, so I had better show up.

Saturday

Quite a day, at least from my perspective. Your mileage may differ.

This was the fourth Saturday of Ian’s swimming lessons. He is a ’shrimp’, which is the first group in a long progression that I suppose could end up in Water Safety Instructor if he was so inclined. The class consists of getting used to being in the pool, having your face wet, not breathing when your face is in the water, that sort of thing. He is having a great time, as is Audrey. I have taken a lot of digital video with strange contrast from the water and windows to share with the Grandparents.

After that enjoyable half-hour came the joust with the new pharmacy favored under my medical coverage. It is the county hospital and a far cry from what we were used to with our other health care. The system eventually works, though a bit slowly.

A day that Dr. ‘Liz has been waiting for finally came in the early afternoon. Based on the advice of yours truly (will she ever learn?) she took home a 14″ iBook, and Airport base station and card for her new townhouse. Jaguar (MacOS X 10.2) is nice and all, but if your primary objective is email and the web, true multi-threading and multi-tasking with the Mach kernel sans connectivity is a bit underwhelming. Things will get a lot more interesting when her cable modem is installed at the end of the week.

Then came the voyage to the belly of the beast. Our neighbor’s daughter is turning two in a week and they went in with another couple with a child that just had her third birthday for a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. They were nice enough to invite us along. I have heard of Chuck E. Cheese before, but I had never experienced it. For those who don’t know, Chuck’s is a kid’s pizza place complete with an indoor amusement park, a large animatronic mascot (the previously mentioned Mr. Cheese, a seven foot mouse) who sings and talks and sort of acts as the emcee for the various festivities. I was prepared for the worst, an assault on sense and sensibility bundled with crass commercialism and an ocean of fussy, crying children.

We had a great time. I was very pleasantly surprised. The young staff had obviously been selected for actually liking little kids and because of that, the kids (and their parents) had a great time. Ian gnawed on a tiny piece of cheese pizza for a bit, but I think the crackers we brought with us won out in the end. The substantial noise and activity level didn’t seem to phase him, nor did the large costumed mouse who stopped by for the singing of ‘Happy Birthday.’ He really liked riding on the tractor with Barney, the Mouth of Sauron, and a little truck with Bob the Builder. The rides gently rocked, just the thing for someone who is a little shy of 11 months. Mom really took a shine to the ‘Whack a Mole’ game in the bigger kid’s section. I can’t help but wonder if they resembled someone’s thesis committee. And I had a great time. I would not want to be a regular, but a couple of times more during Ian’s childhood would not be too bad.

Then we were home around eight and wondered where the day went. At least there is one more day of weekend.

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Warren Zevon Has Terminal Lung Cancer

"Warren Zevon has been diagnosed with a terminal case of lung cancer. A former smoker, Zevon didn’t know he had cancer, but a visit to a doctor in August revealed the disease, as well as the news that it had already metastasized to his liver.

The singer-songwriter has since been concentrating on two main things–spending time with his children, and writing and recording as many songs as he can in the coming weeks, with sessions planned for next week.

As is characteristic of his sense of humor, Zevon announced the news this way: “I’m OK with it, but it’ll be a drag if I don’t make it till the next James Bond movie comes out.”" [more at Yahoo! via Alwin]

Nuts.

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Honor them with peace, not war.

It has been a year since the tragedy of 11 September. Today we personally remember in whatever manner we deem fitting. Nationally, we will be flooded with messages from many corners telling us how we should feel and act. Today, my thoughts, compassions, and prayers go to all who lost husbands, wives, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends and relatives of every kind, co-workers, casual acquaintances, and complete strangers.

I don’t know what else to say except that I hope that we, individually and collectively, can begin to piece our lives and our world back together. Perhaps we will then begin to quit starting at shadows and whispers. Perhaps then we can rebuild our society of freedom, openness, and trust we have left behind.

This will doubtless include bringing more to answer for the murders of so many. This is right action. Many other things that are contemplated are not right action as they are motivated by personal, political, and, I fear, corporate gain. This is not right action.

When we have returned to our lives we can truly say we are honoring the innocents slain a year ago. Of course, this is my opinion. You may have a differing one. That is part of being free.

Except for what is above, blivet will have no postings today.
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