Surprise! Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered
A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star is a real diamond in the rough.The super-high pressure of the planet, which orbits a rapidly pulsing neutron star, has likely caused the carbon within it to crystallize into an actual diamond, a new study suggests.The composition of the planet, which is about five times the size of Earth, is not its only outstanding feature.
Dr. D passed away last week. You’ll be fondly remembered. Thanks for introducing me to Umberto Eco, and not talking to me like a kid.
Tonight when I get home, we should be at the final clip for hanging up ornaments. The in-laws went to visit BHK’s grandparents pre-Christmas last weekend, so we deemed it better for them to rest up.
Tonight’s a lunar eclipse – I won’t be staying up to see it, but should be a nifty show!
Let’s summarize the weekend a bit.
To play catch up with pictures posted earlier – Went with Amy & Wanda to Tuba Christmas @ Our Lady Star of the Sea church in St. Mary’s and then had supper at Laughing Buddha – a lot of fun, and more interactive than I’d have thought. Sunday was otherwise pretty exhausting for both BHK and me.
Saturday – we spotted a snowman by post office, and put some sideways disco balls out on the ground around our house to emulate snowfall. About all we did was listen to holiday music, and then I played a lot of Sam & Max
Friday – Rested at the house… didn’t do much of anything, really.
Finally, The Good Guys was canceled. Boo. I loved that show.
1 year ago – many pics – pano of the snow, me in a mad bomber hat, snow snow snow!
2 years ago – allergy shots, hung ornaments on tree
3 years ago – Tannenbaum cam up, coming movies, found doug wu on friendster, tentacled decor
4 years ago – acim / td interaction, newt and pye begin to blend
5 years ago – new chinese, florida snowman, day 44 of compusa drama, shadowrun, weird food, uncle joe’s monkey-man army
6 years ago – I lift mel w/one hand, video hits, anagram santas workshop, john dee’s crystal ball stolen, christmas meme, baby theft
7 years ago – considering an upgrade, Nigerian magic is weak vs bullets
8 years ago – Ft. Laud facts, Antarctic Life, Muslim Roundup, Bro at his worst finds a stray cat, make a supervillian desktop
9 years ago – Bodyboarding on lava, McMummies, xp patch
10 years ago – Restless, Special Olympics cheaters, wondering about where my parts were pre-me, palm reading
11 years ago – ave maria, newt’s 5 trip to the vet – broke 4lbs
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Now playing: Gas – Discovery
Tasty spaghetti for supper tonight – BHK stopped off for scratchers and soda pop – $2, no prize. Listened to Life of Riley on the way home, and just took it slow.
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Info on conficker – more straightforward than a lot of the misinformation out there.
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There’s a ton of stories this morning about some bright flashes of light and booming noises coming from the skies over eastern Virginia, parts of Maryland and North Carolina. The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that the National Weather Service’s Wakefield station’s phone was "ringing off the hook" last night after around 9:45 p.m., as residents frantically called in to report flashing, bright lights and in some places, an explosion-like sound. No immediate explanation came from the NWS, but a team is now investigating what might have caused the fiery flashes. WTOP has a report that suggests that the phenomenon was most likely a fireball, which can occur when a piece of meteor rock enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
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SWAT in Maryland update – via Cheye Calvo –
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1 year ago – bhk sick, games workshop, weather, david horvitz, detox quackery, q&A meme,
2 years ago – view from my desk at calvert county, quizzes, geourl, bake sale!
3 years ago – MM talks to me, Danny Nominated, GP & Kat coming to town, German lesson, batman sound screencaps, zefrank starts archiving his entries, queen, quirk quiz, updating my geocode, Monkey Florida Fire News, plus whalesong
4 years ago – met mzkitten, poker spam, totem, Nostradamus Quatrain Generator, uv flower photos, doc ock song, david byrne
5 years ago – news registration, De Soto, missing digits, esp test, pirates, Nevada
6 years ago – Danny, keywords, Maryland Snow Day
7 years ago – stuff to look at, darkstar, panorama picture galleries, pulps, snap club, newt pics, troll, dragonball, RPS poll, Lj poll, easter egg recipes/cinnamon bunny bread, stream of thought – 3 minutes, cbs mystery theater
8 years ago – netcast, rent, palm tree, spaghetti-ohs, 7-up, key limits, parapsychology, slurs
Happy Fat Tuesday!
In-laws came over and we all had pancakes for Dinner tonight – along with some deviled / boiled eggs, it made for a tasty end of the day.
Larry and I tried spotting the green comet Lulin tonight, but to no avail – the neighbor’s house blocked out that part of the horizon. Maybe sometime this weekend, we can head out to the boardwalk and try to spot a section that isn’t too lit up.
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Word of the Day – EVOE! (from the Conception of Dionysus)
"Zeus stretched out on Semele’s bed in the form of a bull with human limbs. Then he was a panther. Then a young man with vine shoots in his curls. Finally he settled into that most perfect of shapes: the serpent. Zeus prolonged their union like some story without end, a rehearsal of the life of the god about to be generated. The snake slithered over Semele’s trembling body and gently licked her neck. Then, gripping her bust in one of his coils, wrapping her breasts in a scaly sash, he sprinkled her not with poison but with liquid honey. The snake was pressing his mouth against Semele’s mouth, a dribble of nectar trickling down onto her lips intoxicated her, and all the while vine leaves were sprouting up on the bed and there was a sound of drums beating in the darkness. The earth laughed. Dionysus was conceived just as Zeus shouted the name with which for centuries he was to be evoked: ‘Evoe!’"
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That’s all I’ve got. Until later, dear journal.
1 year ago – Trip to the eastern shore, cannonball house, GW sweatshirt, hot sauce, walkabout pictures – geodesic dome, radio tower, old church, stitching pictures weirdly, general tanuki’s, my first Natty Boh, Cthulhu at Gitmo, The Prestige
2 years ago – lj notifications broken, model train expo, George Takei on Tim Hardaway
3 years ago – newt herd pic, sleep, quiz-meme, lost a kid before we were even called
4 years ago – Sleepy, Paris Hacked, Gorilla Cover Gallery, adding insult to injury pic, mel out of comm for a week
5 years ago – Newt-beliefs, Police pay an unkind visit (DRAMA!)
6 years ago – fairy tales, country bears, lj poop, palm doodle, A Reading Rainbow of Prophesies, misc news
7 years ago – Tulpa-thoughts, L&B have the baby
8 years ago – one of my favorite bear piccies, hoogerbrugge, Haiku arena is founded, rough translations
The popular virus scanner AVG released an update yesterday that caused their software to mark user32.dll as a virus.
Since this is a rather critical file, AVG’s suggestion to remove it caused problems for users around the world who are now advised to restore the file through the Windows Recovery Console.
AVG just posted an update about this (FAQ item 1574) in the support section of their site.
Hopefully unconnected – NASA says its Phoenix lander on the surface of Mars has gone silent and is almost certainly dead. Engineers have not heard from the craft since Sunday 2 November when it made a brief communication with Earth. Phoenix, which landed on the planet’s northern plains in May, had been struggling in the increasing cold and dark of an advancing winter. The US space agency says it will continue to try to contact the craft but does not expect to hear from it.
Both via /.
Went Yard-“sailing” this morning with Tina and BHK – Mostly a bust, but one stop got us a half-dozen unopened buried blueprints puzzles (forgive the ebay link – they’re out of print.), copies of mastermind and upwords, a couple of good books, Max Payne 2 , recipe software, not to mention some other loot that BHK picked up for a total of $8.
I stopped off at the doc’s for shots, bhk and Tina hit wal-mart for some supplies.
After, we hit fab brew, where I got an Italian Soda (cherry), BHK and Tina each got some sort of coffee drink, and then we bounced over to Gallo’s Deli it just opened this week – I got a 3-cheese sub, bhk got meatball and Tina got Turkey & cheese. We’ll be back – it’s pretty average right now, but they’re still getting things in order – it’s no Selby bay sub shop, but they’re three blocks away from the house, and there’s a lot of potential there.
Came back home, crashed out for a nap.
Got up, hung out with the in-laws while they worked the garden, hot dogs, garden green beans and roasted corn for supper! We ate late, and I consumed far too much delicious food.
Watched some National Treasure, Fawlty Towers (drunk chef with a thing for Manuel episode), a moment of the Brothers Solomon (don’t bother) and Army of Darkness.
Scientists think that Mars’ alkaline soil might be able to grow asparagus.
Although he said further tests would have to be conducted, Mr Kounaves said the soil seemed “very friendly… there is nothing about it that is toxic,” he said. “It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard — you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well.”
1 year ago – zucchini from our garden pic, out with CB and BHK, DelMarVa planning, roads & L’Enfant
2 years ago – cranky, vacation plans, soccer/ football, ice cream truck music, alert map, how to make anything look like a toy, flash drive, superstitious, assorted fun links
3 years ago – mp plans, tired, miami vice movie filming, outdoor bro, open id, falling body, florida on florida, pictures, I don’t wanna be stoned, zombie dogs, To live instead of exist
4 years ago – pick up the phone, explosion world, virtual frog dissection, viruses,giant clothes, roadsign, hulk coloring book, ebooks, puppy stops killers
5 years ago – plushie microbes, night flight, handguns, Scientology, newt pics, playboy
6 years ago – Newt smarts, moment of zen, moment of poop, political compass, dusty apt.
7 years ago – weird emma, peremptory, yum!, broken linkies, evil news, name poll, who do you love
8 years ago – breakup w/ April, Candle, submarine
More photos’ from yesterday’s tornado! – Chesapeake Beach Storm Damage – Photos – WRC | Washington
Folks here are really excited about it – After Hurricane Andrew, I’m glad it wasn’t as bad as it might’ve been. Big issue here was that it came out of nowhere, in a matter of moments – hurricanes you get a solid warning. THe roof that was blown off may finally allow for the smokey stink to fade from traders. 12 people were hospitalized, but no major injuries that I know of.
Chris and Larry lost some roof flashing, had a cracked window pane, and some broken tree limbs about the place, but thankfully nothing too devastating.
Most fascinating to me is the marble-sized hail that hit us on the way home… I really thought the truck’s windshield (already cracked, from an ancient wound) was going to shatter at one point.
It is a 3 minute animation video, based on the Day of the Dead.
I need never hear the phrase “eyes like gimlets” or variant “gimlet-eyed” again. I like the word gimlet and all, but enough is enough.
Unrelated, I could go for some tasty quiche. Had some blah pad thai at Noodles & Co. in annapolis while we sought out Alan’s Birthday prezzie. It didn’t do much for me, but the cookies and cream milkshake en route home was quite good.
Don’t know why.. my life is pretty keen, and without want.
| You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an… Economic Moderate (43% permissive) You are best described as a:
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It’s the Weekend!!!
From New Scientist Tech: (or, a better use of a Newt/Pye cam?)
To try and develop a more sophisticated model, the team recorded the responses of 49 individual neurons in a part of a cat’s brain called the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). The LGN receives and processes visual information from the retina, via the optic nerve, before sending it on to the cerebral cortex.
The data made it possible to build a software model of the LGN that can approximate how the neurons would respond to real scenes. The model was tested against scenes recorded from a “catcam” camera attached to a cat’s head.
“We chose the catcam because it was the most natural stimulus we could think of, the closest to what a cat would see when walking around,” Matteo Carandini told New Scientist. Because the catcam footage lacked elements moving independently from the rest of the scene, the researchers also used a scene from Disney’s animated film Tarzan.
The model’s predictions proved to be 80% accurate when shown artificial scenes, but this figure fell to 60% with the natural scenes or the Tarzan movie.
The ultimate goal of the research, still years distant, is to develop an implant that uses visual data to directly stimulate the LGN of blind people whose optic nerve or retina has degenerated from lack of use.
“For these people, a prosthesis in the eye doesn’t help,” Carandini explains. Only people who have recently become blind can benefit from such implants – currently being tested in humans – that stimulate the retina or optic nerve
Work on monkeys last year showed it is possible to stimulate the LGN using electrodes to alter their vision, something previously thought impossible. Software models like that developed by Carandini and colleagues would be vital for an implant to stimulate the right neurons to create a mental impression of vision.
Lunar Eclipse last night was lovely… clear skies, snowy ground and crisp air. A good time to be outside and looking at the sky, if just for a moment.
Somebody made a sacrifice somewhere, and the moon came back. Next time, the gods won’t be so kind!
Warnings about ice tomorrow… I may get a long weekend… (if my internet and power goes out… or I may get to work form home!) Then again, I may get to go into the office that’s mostly empty, and get a lot of work done there, too. I suspect any or all will be win.
Lovely leftover dinner tonight… last of the mexican bake while BHK and I watch The Last Legion. I think that she liked it more than I did… How’d they get Mr. Darcy, Ghandi and the Mistress of the spices together to make this flick? Apparently the Goths were vikings with scottish accents.
(To break it down further 1100 people asked – Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.)
I’ve neglected to mention that we watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider series.
It was only worth it for the Hoff cameo, and even that was pretty weak. Thank goodness for tivo and fast forward.
Psych was a little too scooby-doo for me last night… but watching the outtake of them singing “Somebody’s Watching Me” made it more than worth it. I also saw the graduation episode of Kim Possible. Nice that Drakken has some utility after all.
A giant frog that hopped around Madagascar 65–70 million years ago has been discovered.
Fossil fragments show that the frog, called Beelzebufo ampinga, could have measured 20 centimetres across its squat head, and probably more than 40 centimetres from snout to tail. The researchers nicknamed the monstrous beast ‘the frog from hell’; the official name comes from one of the many names for the devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin for ‘toad’ (bufo).
Add a few more elements, like mental / physical health plus his gender, age and skin tone into the mix, and I’d be interested to see how much harder it’d be to get by if you changed variables around. I don’t like the implication that “anyone could do it”.
I also wonder who was left out of the shelter he stayed in for the first few months of his experiment? Did they go hungry as a result? Sleep on the street?
The more I think about it, the more I’d like to see him actually in the circumstances of hopelessness and fear being homeless can bring. I feel that knowing the safety net is there will give a false sense of confidence and comfort, too.
Anyone can go camping when they know full well that they could fix things with a phone call… how’s that song go?
You’ll never live like common people,
you’ll never do what common people do,
you’ll never fail like common people,
you’ll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there’s nothing else to do.
He got to bail due to a personal tragedy at home… who else is allowed that? It’s a lousy experiment when you can change the variables and conditions at whim.
2 years ago – 2nd life, frankenbox windows issue, modified newtcam subdomain, Samuel, I’m a nine
3 years ago – Atlantic shores hosp, motherboards, jokers utility belt, 2-headed baby, paris hilton hacked, jlu, angry beavers, comic essentials, danny teaches school about graphic novels, six-gun gorilla, ash, icon origin
4 years ago – Wishing for Dr. Feng Shui, Quit FFXI, Time out with Danny and his wife
5 years ago – DDoS on LJ, Friday five, Nordis is full of crap, parking spots pictures, The Groovenians = blah
6 years ago – robo-triffid, daily pictures, back hurting
7 years ago – Chariots of the Gods, reminders, Geocities stops hot links, my nesting instinct
‘Second Earth’ found, 20 light years away
Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky “second Earth” circling a star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.
The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life. Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earth’s nearest stars, a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra.
Measurements of the planet’s celestial path suggest it is 1½ times the size of our home planet, and orbits close to its sun, with a year of just 13 days. The planet’s orbit brings it 14 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun. But Gliese 581 burns at only 3,000C, half the temperature of our own sun, making conditions on the planet comfortable for life, with average ground temperatures estimated at 0 to 40C. Researchers claim the planet is likely to have an atmosphere. The discovery follows a three-year search for habitable planets by the European Southern Observatory at La Silla in Chile.
Contrary to my original belief, the points aren’t given as rewards for doing well, but can only be purchased. Pfth.
I’ll be interested to see what Newtcam and my LJ reading list looks like on the big tv.
BHK got Wii Play (good excuse to get another wii remote, and I’m a sucker for minigames – see Wario) – a lot of fun. I like the billiards game the most.
I suspect that our next few Wii purchases will be one or two of the following:
“Life does not happen to us, it happens from us.” — Mike Wickett
“Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.” — John Donne
It will allow one to migrate or move blogs from LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress and publish to LiveJournal, Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, WordPress – or possibly clone a blog.
the download is available at
http://linuxlore.blogspot.com/2007/09/l
I’m going to test it out on my own server – just to see how it runs. I’m not leaving LJ, but it’s nice to know I can run a backup.
2 years ago – condo pesks, bcl pic, knit zombies, library comics, balloon criminals, atom sponge, psycho pirate, hawkman thermometer, shazam hulk, varsity rule, spectre
3 years ago – Danny/Kool Aid Man, Silent Running, Lappie first loses charge, weather change, MD witchcraft, Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed From a Skull
4 years ago – big brain, doctor, palm doodles, 5 things, purple frog, shaky-photo
5 years ago – nicer weather, glow zombies, newt pic, dreams, quiz, port 135, Erica, Bailey, Dexter, hat pins, zombie icon test
6 years ago – Tor Johnson, dulcet, brown study, Bin Laden sued, sick at home, css,Orisinal games, Knight’s colors, friendly ultralight helps migration,Glenda, Dave Macs me, Library thoughts, network names
7 years ago – work, TorT, 5 good things, Arnie-flicks, nails in a post
And another one gone…
WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.
From New York Times
The moon enters the Earth’s full shadow, or umbra, at 4:51 a.m. EDT (1:51 a.m. PDT). It enters the total-eclipse phase at 5:32 EDT (2:52 PDT) and the event ends after sunrise on the East coast and at 4:22 a.m. PDT.
1 year ago – butternose, travel pictures, bhk at bayfest, Lake Placid / Magnificent 7, stained glass crab, urban decay, flying, Ernesto coming,
2 years ago – cats in sinks, sf author journals, free refills for dumpster divers, nerd/dork/geek, candy, A Beheading for Homeland Security, work update
3 years ago – on call, cases, make your own bat phone, lj-brain melt, 50 questions
4 years ago – mongorians, kama sutra, making fiends, mars attacks cards, Arnie has strong opinions on gay marriage, toe-hang, palm from work, work misc,bro, paper models, theme fonts, palm cam, ny blackout pics
5 years ago – Fuzzy Newt, Dan-chops, slackers, heroclix modding / props, mankind enslaved poll, Dan & I duke it out with clix, 100 glowing zombies
6 years ago – Newt is like a baby Bob, Treehouse, mycathatesyou.com, pirates
7 years ago – quiz, crushy, scrabbling, sleep study, kring posts randomly in my lj
Hard to believe it’s been a year since Mel and I were together. it doesn’t seem that long ago. Breaking up right before Vallie’s Day is a pretty stark reminder.
Newt is being a good kid, and is playing fetch with me, using his krackle-bug. He always knows when to pay extra attention. I’m very fortunate that he’s such a sweet little monkey.
These rooms are painted so that, when looked at right, optical illusions will appear. Very keen. (via jwz)
[edit – videos by the artist here – http://www.varini.org/05vid/vid01.html ]
Pigs in Space, The Early Years. via b3ta 256k image, 768 x 10944
Hey, the Stardust probe made it back! (thanks 
Robert!)
Reuters Article Continue reading 8115 – Robert says Andromeda Strain, I’m more for Night of the Living Dead
