Monday August 12, 2002

Woke up at 2am (EST) to watch the meteor shower. Saw a few but not as many as Saturday night. Before going back to bed I spotted something unusual. Normally when I sleep out on the porch there will be a few satellites zinging across the heavens. Last night there were three of them in tight formation. A triangle pattern like this:

             *
  
                           *
             *

Which moved steadily northward across the sky, slightly east of overhead, at one point travelling close to Casseopia. I've tried my old favorite sat watcher apps, Jtrack/Jpass, with no luck. Cosmos 2151 seems about the right time, 2:05am, but the track is off a bit. Cosmos 158 seems the right track, wrong time. Either way, where are the other two companions? Suppose it might have been some high flying jets without blinking lights? Classified sats? Urvile wedge? Dunno. Does anyone have a better means for plotting satellites around that time?



Reading an article today and picked up a link to Saute Wednesday. Looks like a winner of a weblog for those who enjoy cooking.

Later, while looking up a Lamb recipe, I learned a new word:

Aitchbone
NOUN:
  1. The rump bone, especially of cattle. 
  2. The cut of beef containing the rump bone. 
ETYMOLOGY:
  Alteration (influenced by aitch) of Middle English hach-boon, from
  an hach-boon, an aitchbone, alteration of a nachebon : nache, buttock
  (from Old French, from Late Latin natics, accusative pl. of natica,
  buttock, from Latin natis) + bon, bone (from Old English bn).



bigfly.jpg

Image is actual size.

I kid you not. Ok, maybe just a hair smaller. Found this monster of a horse fly between a window and screen yesterday. This is the one bug that Zeke and I will run full blast to escape (not that it does much good). It lands without you feeling a thing...that is until it takes a bite. Lighting and focus are off a bit but, hey, I wasn't really interested in getting closer.



John Ball • 2002-08-14 08:24pm

Did you scan that horsefly in through your scanner? It must have made a mess if you put the scanner cover over it.
I also like the shadowing effect. It almost looks like you made it look nice with some Photoshop effects. You didn't have to do that for us. ;-)
Jerry • 2002-08-14 09:04pm

Digital photo, removed the distracting background, and put a PS drop shadow on it. There was a bright sun behind it and no way was I going to move it to a more photogenic spot!


You'll find Bruce Eckel books in the programming section of your local bookstore or online. You can also download some of them as electronic books. I was browsing the electronic (html) Thinking in Python this weekend and noticed after each paragraph a link for leaving a comment. Nice idea.

I need a waterproof laptop for reading docs while soaking in the tub. Heads up display? Tub-o-vision?