blivet 2.0

Passings #

Buddy Hackett and Katharine Hepburn have both passed away. sigh

National Do Not Call Registry #

The National Do Not Call Registry opened last week. So, in case you haven’t heard about it elsewhere…

Mozilla 1.4 #

It’s out, so your path is clear. Hm, my app startup splash screen went away. Is that a bug or a feature?

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Speaking of Big Days… #

Audrey got a snail mail from the graduate college. The first sentence contained the phrase "your degree has been conferred."

w00t.

Farther in there was some stuff about their not having the $15 ‘graduation fee.’ Whatever. I’m sure we’ve paid it, but we are not going to argue at this point. <audrey> "Fifteen bucks gets me out? Where’s the checkbook?" </audrey>

Really Big day.

It’s a Big Day! #

In addition to everything else going on today, Ian is 20 months old.

Thanks to Jeff, Andrea, Sheila, garret and Alwin. (Apologies to those I’ve missed.) Al’s right, those iCards are pretty darn cool.

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Summer Solstice is Tomorrow As Well… #

These are from Brian’s Got Caliche? list:

http://www.solsticeproject.org/research.html
Papers available on this site may be downloaded, but must not be distributed without citation.

http://parks.state.ut.us/visiting/events.php?month=june

June 21 Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum Solstice Celebration. The summer solstice will be marked by an informative lecture and tour of the Solstice Marker by artist and archeologist Joe Pachak.

http://sidecanyon.com/attraction/utah5.htm

If you visit the Holly Group on certain days of the year, you can see an example of how ancestral Puebloans possibly determined the solstice and equinox by tracking the sun’s position. In late May and June, vicious gnats, known locally at Pinyon gnats, are common. They descend like a Biblical plague of locusts. Bug repellent will help but we haven’t found anything that will actually stop them. If you plan to visit Hovenweep for the Summer Solstice, you’ll probably be OK because they are not usually active at sunrise. But, shortly thereafter, they will be out in force. Our advice: don’t camp here during gnat season.

http://www.crowcanyon.org/Programs/solstice_markers.html

Solstice Markers and Puebloan Skies: Observational astronomy has deep and abiding roots in the Puebloan world of the northern Southwest. Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancestral Pueblo Indians (Anasazi) marked astronomical events, perhaps as guides or records of their agricultural and ceremonial calendars. Rock art and architecture were carefully placed so that beams of sunlight would interact with rock images on important seasonal days such as equinoxes and solstices, marking the days with remarkable precision.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/05/18/TR77774.DTL

At summer solstice, mystic pilgrims now flock to one of the park’s ceremonial kivas, where sunlight beams through an opening and illuminates a niche on the opposing wall. One year, a ranger placed a cardboard cutout of Elvis in the ruin. At dawn, the image of the King greeted the chanting revelers. I wish I’d been camping there then to have seen it.

http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/events/solstice/index.shtml
MARKING THE SOLSTICE Arizona State Museum, June 21, 2003, 5 - 8:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

http://phoenix.gov/PARKS/hikpafac.html

At Hole-in-the-Rock, the Hohokam marked the occurrence of the summer solstice by grinding a bedrock metate slick at the location where the ray of light falls during that day around noontime.

http://www.amug.org/~sbplum/Siteinfo.html

The Shaw Butte site petroglyphs relate to the astronomical observations at the site. The centerstone has been aligned with winter solstice sunrise and summer solstice sunset. The centerstone acts as an instrument to mark the solstices. The flat face of the boulder is in shade as solar noon approaches the time of summer solstice. A notch in the top of the stone allows a tiny shaft of light to touch the middle of one of the circle/dots. As the sun continues to approach zenith, the spot of light grows until the majority of the face is awash in light.

http://www.nps.gov/cagr/adhi/adhi6.htm

Frank Pinkley noticed that there was a system of holes in the east wall of the Great House through which the rising sun aligned each year on the mornings of March 7 and October 7. By 1918, without any study or investigation, he explained to visitors that these holes were used twice each year as a solar calendar to date ceremonies. In 1920 Pinkley broadened his astronomical interpretation after he discovered holes in the Great House’s north wall. He invented an elaborate initiation ceremony story, which involved “calling down the stars,” to explain these holes.

Six Very Happy Years #

Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of the day that Audrey and I got married. The second best day of my life. The best day is over there under Ian.

LZW #

The patent for LZW compression expired yesterday. Now .gifs can run free… [via Jeff]

Community Birthdays! #

Happy Birthday to Andrea and Sheila! And Exclamation Man!, too! What a day.

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Back from Ely #

First, Happy Father’s Day to all you Fathers, Grandfathers, Great-Grandfathers, Sons, Daughters, all you folks, out there.

I’m back from the NAA Board of Director’s meeting which was in Ely, NV. We stopped by the rock art panels in the White River Narrows [1, 2] on the way back to Las Vegas. If you are ever in the area, I’ll take you there. 

Once I got back home, I had a very nice Father’s Day afternoon and evening.

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Interesting things from Eliot at FMH #

I read Eliot’s observations on Millgrams’ Obedience to Authority study with interest, as it has always facinated me. But, my interest was piqued when he brought it into our current situtation. Here is what he concluded with.

"Chillingly, these trends have progressed, if we can use that word, in the intervening decades to an extent that makes authoritarian influence and obedience to it even more robust. The techniques of social control are ever more powerful but, fist-in-glove, ever more subtle and opaque to social discourse. The relatively limited scale of conscientious objection to US military adventurism, which I have discussed here during the Iraqi invasion, and recent revelations of US military research into neurobiological interventions to forestall the formation of traumatic memories during combat to enhance our troops’ fighting efficiency, are just two random threads in a net that should be viewed in this light. And I cannot help thinking the phenomenon is linked to the question I keep raising here about why the American public has acquiesced to the justifications for the invasion with nary an outcry about having been lied to egregiously. The maxim is trite, but more important than ever: ‘Speak truth to power.’"

Well worth a look.

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Update #

Hello again. It has been a week and a half and I thought I should check in. My excuse is that I have had the Mother of All Sinus Infections™, but I’m feeling a bit better now. But I’m not dead, yet!</python>. What follows is one of the best/worst examples of run-on sentences you are likely to find.

Susan had a birthday that went without my public acknowledgement until now. It is also Love JPL Day over at 2020, btw. Dave had some natality festivities as well and picked a new digital camera along the way. garret is back (in body at least as of 22:36:40 gmt-7) from the Texas hill country, Alwin survived all that contact with sun, salt water and recreation, Matt remains Matt, which is a good thing, Craig and Josh remain must-reads (why is Ken Lay still unindicted, btw?), John is hunkered down in hot pursuit of the wily dissertation, Dr. ‘Liz is off to Golden, CO, SirDeath is having a party this weekend for our friend John (who will be back in town), Audrey may have passed the 12th bardo of the Graduate School thesis format devils (we’re holding our breath), I’ll be in Ely, NV this weekend attending a Nevada Archaeology Association board meeting (Audrey and Ian are going to the party, however) and Ian remains off the scale delightful.

Whew. I know I left some folks out of that, and I apologize.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes is a lot more fun than you remember it being when you sing it with a 19-month old. His two most common words/phrases that are intelligible are whatthat? and Wow! He has both parents wrapped around that little finger. No surprise there.

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