This came up in the news feed here :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13958630

It made me chuckle.

Found this article on the Bad Astronomy website.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/29/awesomely-weird-expanding-halo-of-light-seen-from-hawaii/#more-33949

If you don't agree with his explanation, then make up your own. I'm sure someone will believe it.

Here are two sites that I've been using recently to for images modifying, you might find them handy from time to time.


For Image reflections
http://www.generateit.net/reflection/index.htm

Put rounded corners on images.
http://www.roundpic.com/

And if you know any other ones, please post them too if you like.

WARNING! This is a rant!

First off, I want to state that I love my family. In general they're great folk. But sometimes I want to take away their computers and replace them with a box of crayons and some recycled newsprint.

Yesterday, I got an email from a sibling; it was one of those sendings that one usually just tosses in the round file without even really reading them. You know the kind; with cutsie sayings, or "funny" pictures, with "pass this along to all your friends", or "this is REALLY important, so make sure that everyone you know gets it". I think this one mentioned President Obama in it, but honestly the content didn't really matter. What DID matter was that said sibling sent that email to FIFTY people, with each and every email address placed in the "TO:" line!

This happens to me from time to time, and each time before, I would just delete the offending email and give a discreet word to the sender about why this behaviour is a bad thing. This time, however, something inside me snapped, and I decided to take action of a different sort.

What I did was to compose an email to myself, and I included every one of those addresses that I could see in the BCC line, so that everyone who got the same email that I had gotten would also get my missive, hopefully educating at least one person in the process. Below is the content of that email:

---

Many of you know me. Most of you don't. That's fine. For the sake of what I'm trying to accomplish, it doesn't matter whether you do or not. I don't send emails of the type you just received earlier today because I feel that it's a perversion of what email was originally intended for. That doesn't really matter, either. What matters is this: You received this email because your email address was visible to me in the email that I received from someone else on this list, and I'm trying to educate everyone I can as to why this is a bad thing. So please pay attention here.

Let's pretend that I'm not the nice person that I actually am. Let's, just for a moment, say that I don't treat everyone with respect, dignity and compassion. Let's imagine, instead, that I'm the sort of person who doesn't care about others. Since I no longer have any concern for you, and since I know of a great way to make money on the internet, I've just sold all of your email addresses to a company who sends out those "male enhancement", home mortgage, or Canadian pharmacy emails we all hate. There were fifty email addresses in the "To" line of that email you all got earlier, which makes your address visible to everyone else who received it. That's bad enough, but let's say I didn't get that email, but one that was forwarded to me at a later time. Emails zip around the world, and spread faster than any deadly contagious illness ever made, and each time an email is forwarded, any new entries in the "To" or "Carbon Copy" (CC) line are included, as well, and I've seen emails with SEVERAL HUNDRED email addresses visible. If only one person out...

Read More

I know that the vast majority of you folks live across the pond from me, but I want to extend an invitation anyway.

Quote from: www.geekcavecreations.comOn May 20th, 2012, there will be what is known as an Annular Solar Eclipse. The eclipse will begin at roughly 4:15PM, with the center of totality passing over my campsite at around 5:30PM, and the last of the eclipse ending after sunset. This promises to be a truly awe-inspiring event, and I'll be making a huge event of it, camping there overnight on the 19th. Luckily, this is on a weekend!

The dead-on center of the eclipse's path will cross the extreme southern portion of Pyramid Lake, north of Reno, Nevada, which is quite close to my house (relatively speaking, of course), and I'm trying to organize a large event at the lake to celebrate, and to watch what I believe to be not only a rare type of eclipse, but also the most exciting astronomical event I shall ever be witness to (and I've seen Halley's Comet!)

There's more information about the "Eclipse Party" at http://www.geekcavecreations.com/?eclipse2012, including a map (courtesy of Google Maps), if you're interested. Everyone is invited, and I'm hoping that this will be a spectacular event, where I can share my joy of the heavens with my friends from around the world.

I didn't want to tie up Snowy's thread with my stuff, so I figured I'd best post my stuff here.

Data, as per your request, here's that art piece, re-rendered to 1920x1080 for you.


Midnight Oil

(I think it looks better in the larger size, myself)

Found these things on YouTube, an odd desktop gadget.