blinkit

Mars landing live

Today's bLINKit: For anyone looking at this blog Sunday afternoon, PST, check out Ustream live coverage of the Phoenix Lander on Mars. They're basically streaming the NASA TV live feed, with commentary scrolling by from the peanut gallery.

Roundup: Attention shoppers: Lady Smith in Aisle 5.

WMD: A bunch of things today ... First, a rant about the outpouring of "grief" for Anna Nicole Smith. "I truly believe she had a lot of love to give and just wanted to be loved back," said one young office worker from London, according to a recent AP story noting Smith fans are flooding the Net with messages of remembrance. "Also I looked up to her because of the background she came from. Humble roots and making it big time gave me inspiration." I, too, am inspired, for only in America can you become a stripper and bag a lonely and very old man to inherit his fortune when he dies, leaving you still quite young enough to destroy yourself through expensive indulgences. Yes, it's too bad she died. And it's clear she's the Diana of the Wal-Mart crowd.

24 Watch: I've only watched the first of what was a two-hour outing yesterday. But in one hour, Jack upped his bodycount by 2 as the show went in its periodic Rainbow 6 direction. Nothing borrowed or stolen though. And one person saved. Meantime, the upper echelon politics are taking a familiar turn. Yet another conspiracy against the president.

SL Neighbourhood Update: I have a zeppelin parked to the north of me. I'm not sure why it's there. Plus, some of the environments to explore are getting increasingly complex. A new San Francisco Sim has opened up, complete with street cars that, thanks to lag, move like snails doing slow-motion jackrabbit starts. I also discovered the futuristic City of Fortune, with some impressive pointy architecture. Lots of people were gathered around a central square, where music videos were being projected on giant screens. Other than that, I wasn't sure what they were doing. Picture of the centre of the area above. (I can't post RL pics on the blog at the moment, camera is busted.) Big art events and gatherings in SL also seem to be the order of the day.

Today's bLINKit: You, too, can track your DNA through thousands of years of human lineage through the Genographic Project. I'm tempted to get one of the kits to find out where in the world my genes have come from.

Three years and running on Mars

Today's bLINKit: What are some of the best examples of human engineering around? They're on Mars. The two Rovers exploration vehicles, little robots called Spirit and Opportunity, have lasted three years this month on the Martian surface, far exceeding expectations they'd last a mere few months at best. That's a pretty good record of reliability.

And a conservative critique of multiculturalism based on a study by a liberal of the failure of diverse communities to be cohesive and act in unity.

And Telus comes to SL. Ugh.

The project: Day 2

WMD: Today we did the first work on the fireplace. The top picture at left shows the fireplace in its original condition: 30-year-old brickwork revealing its origins in the '70s. The picture at left is after we put the primer on. It's an improvement even in the intermediate stage. The final version will be grey, although what shade still has to be determined. The colour scheme in general for the walls will be shades of grey: right now I'm mulling over the G35/H35 colour key in General Paint's colour collection. The walls will be a lighter shade, although still recognizably grey to give it character, while the kitchen, wraparound wall and possibly the fireplace will be a darker shade for contrast with both the lighter shade and the white cabinetry in the kitchen. I'm not sure if the fireplace will be the darker shade, or somewhere in between the dark and the light. Inevitably, I'll mount a mirror or art of some kind to break up the brooding presence of floor to ceiling brick.  For those keeping score, shades of grey under consideration include Sterling Coin, Stonewall and Blackthorn. The goal: refresh the fireplace and the living room. The lesson: painting brick is laborious. First you you need to wash the brick with TSP, rinse it, allow it to dry, prime it and then put two coats of paint on it. Today, also bought hardware for the cabinets. The lesson here: hardware is not cheap.

Today's bLINKit: Cranky geek John Dvorak rages against the Blackberry, a device I've never used and don't really want. (I'd rather have a Gameboy or portable DVD player or a decent novel.) And the The West Wing enters its final few episodes. A lot of former fans abandoned the show after creator and central writer Aaron Sorkin left three years ago, and since then it sputtered. But this season has marched along smartly, with a war room feel to its portrayal of backroom politics during a fictional American presidential race. I, for one, will miss it, and I'm not the only one.

Plus: if you weren't freaked out by global warming, you'll definitely be freaked out by global dimming. Say farewell to the future.

 

Sunday note: Cherry trees

Today's bLINKit: Whenever the cherry trees blossom, I always think of taking pictures of them. I seldom do. Good thing Randy is back shooting, and taking some fine pics of said trees. I'm not sure, but he might be doing haiku with the cutlines, too.

Meantime, Macleans' online site has Internet radio. Fairly vanilla offerings, but they're free. CTV says we may be growing meat on our kitchen countertops the way many people now use breadmaking machines. And evidence suggesting playing videogames may be good for your career.

D&D with a PhD

Today's bLINKit: Want to visit the past? Academics and computer geeks at UBC hope to make that possible by making an online virtual recreation of the ancient classical world. It's not running yet, and still in the development stages, but it looks like a serious peer-reviewed effort.

More 24 carnage; a look at Mars

Today's bLINKit: The wallpaper on my desktop is a picture of Mars, taken five years ago (by the Hubble) when it reached its closest distance to the earth since the time of the Neanderthals. My desktop wallpaper has changed over the years, with Vienna, the Sunshine Coast, my cat and Veronica Zemanova all making appearances, but I always come back to Mars. I love Mars, always have, and of course, lots of people do, since it's probably the one planet around we have any chance, and it's a very slim one, of reaching and colonizing to any degree. That's why Google has answered that Martian love with this very cool site: Google maps of Mars. Its the next best thing to being there. Some days I wish I was.

WMD: If it's another episode of 24, it must mean another round of character assassination, in the literal sense. Monday's show recycled, effectively again, the theme of the unlikeable character redeeming himself through a selfless act that results in his death (and also that of a totally innocent security guard -- see note later). But just when we were catching our breath, bang, the writers take out one of the longstanding characters in the show. I can't take anymore of this. And just imagine how Jack feels ... Meantime, the online wake for the character killed last week continues at this very good 24 blog. They point out that the security guards for CTU, which Jack regularly beats up when he has to act against the orders of various brain-dead superiors and escape the premises, have red shirts. Just like in the original Star Trek. And we know what happened to them. It's got to be a joke from the producers ...

News flash: 24 will soon be a game. Don't know if there's a PC version. If not, it's not worth worrying about.

Final 24 note: Dave Barry refers to CTU as apparently having the same level of security as a Dairy Queen.

Blooming good

My Christmas cactus bloomed once, sort of, in my old place, and then refused to do so anymore for four years. Within two months of moving to the new HQ, it's decided to celebrate.

Today's bLINKit: The Beeb has great docs available for download here. The newer ones apparently must be downloaded within seven days of broadcast or Internet distribution. The older stuff seems readily available. I'd recommend both the Dirty Money and All in A Day's Work. The former is about money laundering (prevalent, hard to monitor and control, and if you want to do it, go to Miami or Russia). The latter piece features interlaced interviews of working people around the globe. Two pieces I've listened to included soldiers in Canada, Israel and Russia, clerics in Australia, Ireland and the Middle East, and judges in the U.S., Africa and Afghanistan. The BBC has a great global reach and seems deft at convincing people to talk frankly about their lives and jobs. The comparisons and contrasts between the proud career Canadian officer and the disillusioned Russian veteran of Chechnya, for example, were chilling.

In print form, read about India's Untouchables: The Eliot Ness types, not the caste.

And UVic has a new undersea observation platform. A website with live data from the site will be running soon.

Green for Jesus; great movie trailer

Today's bLINKit: American evangelicals, or at least some of them, are urging the U.S. government to get serious about global warming. This is not as unprecedented as it sounds. While evangelicals have been in bed for too long with corporate forces that drag their feet on the environment, their roots back in the 17th and 18th centuries included strong traditions of social reform in health and education. And some do take seriously the OT injunction to be stewards of the earth. That said, the current campaign was created a backlash from more reactionary types who say it distracts from "real" issues, such as gay marriage, abortion and making women wear hats in church. OK, I made that last part up. But it was a practice in many churches until the 1960s at least.

And speaking of gay marriage, or at least gay cowboys, here's one of the latest film trailer mashups making the rounds: I always thought Michael J. Fox had a curious look in his eye when he was in scenes with Christopher Lloyd?

Worst advertising slogan ever

Maybe not the worst ever, but while listening to a Los Angeles radio station today I heard an atrocious ad for Forest Lawn, a funeral company in California. Its slogan went something like this: "We can't do anything about the heartache of losing a loved one, but we can take care of the headaches." Who let that one out the door?

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I listen to KFI from L.A. some weekends via the Net to listen to Leo Laporte's tech radio show. The live feed carries commercials, and they are degrees more brash and loud than the stuff we get up here and all about saving money, making money, getting an interesting career as a notary public or suing someone. Maybe it's that La La Land thing.

Plus, JaqPike alerted me to these images of Saturn, or actually of various moons of Saturn. Looking at these cold, pockmarked and airless orbs is a reminder of how lonely the universe is. Be glad we're where we are.