sitting in a tin can…

Just installed starry night – backyard., and it’s fricking *amazing*. a total hoot.

has a 15 day trial period, and I think most people that are willing to sit through a 15 meg download (on dial-up- busy server, to my laptop it took about an hour, on dsl, it’d probably shoot down in 10 minutes or less) it’s a ton of fun. Even more so on the laptop, because you can take it outside and do stuff, compare to the real stars. more fun than just astronomy, though is the “view from any point” stuff…I like flying back out into space, and looking at satellites orbiting earth, and such. It’s peaceful, listening to soft music, imagining ones self in a out in vacuum.

And, the news. I’ve been trying to keep Bin Laden out, but I think this is significant

Mississippi School To Move Into Last Century
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The Tate County (Miss.) School Board has decided to stop electing separate black and white high school homecoming queens and courts – next year. Opponents of the practice have filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and had sought to invalidate a Sept. 18 election of two slates of candidates.

They term the outdated practice “racist” and illegal. A similar situation at Hernando High School in 1997 was investigated by the Office of Civil Rights and led to race-neutral elctions there.

CIA, We Did Not Teach Bin Ladin
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Numerous comments in the media recently have reiterated a widely circulated but incorrect notion that the CIA once had a relationship with Usama Bin Ladin. For the record, you should know that the CIA never employed, paid, or maintained any relationship whatsoever with Bin Ladin.

recherche / chichi

recherche ruh-sher-SHAY, adjective:
1. Uncommon; exotic; rare.
2. Exquisite; choice.
3. Excessively refined; affected.
4. Pretentious; overblown.

Recherche comes from French, from rechercher, “to seek out,” from re- + chercher, “to look for, to seek.”

chichi SHEE-shee, adjective:

Affectedly elegant.

noun

1. Showy stylishness
2. A person with such quality.

From French of the same.