Year: 2004

Man, This Is Frustrating!

Drudge is carrying an item headlined “Mysterious signals from 1000 light years away,” which links to an article at NewScientist.Com.

The problem is that New Scientist, having been Drudged, has now Popularity Crashed. Their server is either so overloaded that it has shut down completely or is so swamped that it can’t respond effectively to all the hits it’s getting.

Been like that for hours.

I’ve been using Google and other search engines to try to turn up information on this story, but all I’ve been able to get thus far are some tiny scraps of data, not the complete text of the article.

If anyone can get the latter, you copy and paste it to me via e-mail?

Here’s what I’ve found out thus far: It appears that the Project SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) have found a signal coming from the area between the constellations of Pisces and Aries that appears to be artificial and appears to be about a thousand light years away.

Now, the great likelihood is not a genuine transmission originating from an alien civilization. Previously unknown signals have been found for decades, and they (thus far) have always turned out to either be natural phenomena (some objects in space emit radio signals naturally) or local artificial phenomena (like signals from Earth-orbiting satellites). One of tiny scrap o’information sites I found even mentioned that this one might be a telescope error.

In all likelihood, researchers will soon figure out what the signal is and that it falls into one of the above non-EBE categories. That’s what happens to most such signals in no time at all. This one has remained unresolved long enough for New Scientist to run a story about it, which means its origin is harder to track down than most.

I just with I could track down some signals originating from New Scientist’s web site.

UPDATE! I just got the text. Click the comments link to read it.

More Super-Earths Found

planet_comparisonsAmerican astronomers have announced the discover of two more “super-earths”–planets which are 14-18 times the size of Earth but much smaller than gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.

Interestingly, one of the old explanations for part of Superman’s strength was that he came from a planet (with a solid surface) that was much heavier than Earth, and its gravity led its inhabitants to be stronger.

Maybe one day scientists will find a rocky super-earth orbiting a red sun and name it . . . Krypton.

NOOOOOOO!!!! Sharona Leaves Monk!!!

sharonamonkI’m stunned! I can’t believe it!! It’s HORRIBLE!!!

Actress Bitty Shramm, who plays the long-suffering, tough-as-nails psychiactric nurse Sharona, is leaving Monk!

For those who haven’t yet caught Monk fever, the program stars Tony Shalhoub and is an absolutely hilarious, intelligent, and life-affirming program about a detective who suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It airs on USA Network and is WELL worth your time.

But now Bitty Shramm–the ideal sidekick and sparring partner for Tony Shalhoub–is leaving the show!

It’ll be like Holmes without Watson!–only Holmes didn’t need Watson to give him handy-wipes to control his germophobia!

GET THE SAD, SAD, SAD STORY.

Whatever is Monk going to do without Sharona???

I just know I’m going to obsess about this.

UPDATE: Welcome Google visitors! More information has been revealed about the Sharona situation since the time this post was written. Basically, Sharona and her son, Benjy, moved back to the East Coast to reunite with her former husband. (This was not shown on screen but was talked about.) Subsequently, Monk hired a new assistant, a former bartender named Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), who has a daughter. Thus far, Natalie seems to be doing as good a job at standing up to Monk as Sharona did, but we’ll always have a special place in our hearts for Sharona. Hopefully she’ll guest star in the future.

Saya Mengerti Bahasa Indonesia Sedikit!

Well, the postman finally decided to deliver the mail that accumulated while I was on vacation. One of the items I was waiting for (in fact, the main item I was waiting for) was my Pimsleur Indonesian CDs.

As y’all may recall, I’ve been wanting to improve my Indonesian skills in anticipation of this year’s Catholic Answers cruise. On the Holland America line, a lot of the staff (particularly the waiters and room stewards) tend to be from Indonesia, and on past cruises I’ve entertained these folks by speaking a little of their native language and asking their help in learning more. This year I wanted to do even more, so I ordered the Pimsleur Indonesian set. Unfortunately, this set is only 10 lessons instead of the usual 30, but at least it’ll give me a good start.

This means I’ll have to put my Japanese studies on hold until I work through the set, but with only ten lessons, that won’t take too long.

I’ve already been using the set, and am quite pleased so far. I already knew parts of the initial conversation that they use at the beginning of every Pimsleur set, which was nice.

I do have one question for Beng or any other readers who speak Indonesian: One of the sounds in the language is a trilled R. Am I right in assuming that these trilled Rs are produced with the tip of the tongue in the front of the mouth (like the Spanish trilled R) or are they produced in the back of the mouth (like the Semitic GH)? Thanks for any help!

New SICK Toy

offensivetoy2As a reader pointed out down yonder, there is a second offensive toy that has been produced and bundled with candy in Florida. This toy appears to depict Usama bin Laden standing between the WTC towers. (And, it looks to me, as if he is preparing to knock them over.)

As before, the candy company explained that it bought the toys sight unseen and did not realize what it was sending out. It has now recalled the toys.

The importer previously defended the first 9/11 toy discovered. No word on whether it also defends this one.

GET THE STORY

Ev'rythin's BIGGER In Texas!

groom_cross2While on my recent vacation, I happened to pass through Groom, Texas. As I did so, I saw the GIGANTIC cross that this town is home to.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it as I passed through (I didn’t stop to get a more stable picture), but fortunately a lady in a comments box provided this link.

It’s a MASSIVE cross.

The kind that any TEXAN could be proud of.

Kudos to Groom!

HERE’S A LINK TO A MINISTRY DEVOTED TO THE CROSS

Ev’rythin’s BIGGER In Texas!

groom_cross2While on my recent vacation, I happened to pass through Groom, Texas. As I did so, I saw the GIGANTIC cross that this town is home to.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it as I passed through (I didn’t stop to get a more stable picture), but fortunately a lady in a comments box provided this link.

It’s a MASSIVE cross.

The kind that any TEXAN could be proud of.

Kudos to Groom!

HERE’S A LINK TO A MINISTRY DEVOTED TO THE CROSS

Assessing Al-Qa'eda

Remember 9/11?

Remember how horrible it was?

Remember all the even more horrible terrorist attacks that followed it?

You don’t?

Neither do I.

This raises a hopeful possibility: Maybe al-Qa’eda has spent its force.

Maybe we’ve neutralized so many of its leaders and footsoldiers that it isn’t able to project the force it did on 9/11.

Maybe it played its hand too early and didn’t have the accumulated strength needed to pull off similarly horrible attacks. (Maybe there just aren’t that many fanatical Muslims willing to kill themselves in the pursuit of jihad.)

Maybe it’s a combination of the these factors.

What I know is that, despite all its posturing, al-Qa’eda hasn’t (yet) been able to pull off a similarly horrible attack in the three years that have elapsed since 9/11.

What I’m sure of is that al-Qa’eda would have carried out a similarly horrible attack if it had been able to do so during most of that time.

What I’m worried about is that al-Qa’eda may have been able to accumulate enough resources to attempt such an attack before the U.S. election two months from now.

What I’m confident of is that al-Qa’eda is still a threat that must be taken with grave seriousness and vigorously pursued.

But as more time elapses without a catastrophic attack, the more evidence accumulates that al-Qa’eda is a spent force.

HERE’S SOMEONE WHO WILL PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER FOR YOU ON THAT HOPEFUL POSSIBILITY.