Simone Parrish (Herself)

I’m a big fan of astronomy-related news, so this was a nice little read. But I’d much rather prefer some Hubble shots of this supernova than the artist’s rendition chosen instead. The drawing evidently shows what the star “may have looked like when it exploded.”

My two grudges:
1) I’m not a big fan of concept pictures unless the subject is purely theoretical or immensely difficult to capture. I’ve seen plenty of real exploding star pics to know this is not the case here. Why should I believe the artist? “May have looked like” is not a very convincing disclaimer.

2) If you are going to use a concept picture of what an exploding star might look like, go all out! We’re talking about the brightest supernova ever! That’s the picture you choose?! C’mon! What about this or this?!

Discovered while reading this extensive blog thread about the finer points of fried potatoes, this site contains an extensive analysis of the complete lack of an actual Belgium.

Driving home from Union Station last night with Michelle and Matthew, the car in front of us had a sticker on it showing a symbol that none of us recognized (it was a pointed oval/vesica piscis crossed with a tilde). I haven’t found it yet but I did find this intriguing reference site.

I’ve mentioned before how I didn’t understand the reasoning behind the recent redesign of the NTEN website, right? Here’s a tiny bit of sad: Their Firefox tab-icon looks like a shiny green pill.
(I should talk, ’cause we don’t even have a Firefox tab-icon. But still.)

Have I, of late, waxed rhapsodic on the coolness of my brother-out-law?
Endless vastnesses of cool. (Like this.)
Also warmth.
(This is his website.)

Here’s what I got when I tried to Google the CLPI caterers.

Look! It’s Will! (I’ve been thinking the same thing. But it looks more like Will.)

My crocuses are gone, and the daffodils are starting to look a little dried out and sad. The cold snap means I have not yet planted nasturtiums and snapdragons to take the place of the gone-by bulbs in my flower-border. I was getting really crabby about that, and then this morning suddenly the narcissi under the maple tree have come up, and some tulips that I forgot about are in bud. Whee.

I just wanted to say thanks for the Lunch Man tip to go get sushi yesterday. The Sake Club is much more pleasing than its jarring Flash site would suggest. Hamachi with shiso was wrapped in beautiful serrated aromatic leaves, instead of just having little slivers of shiso rolled in with the fish. The genmaicha was brought in a teapot with a tiny cheerful white rabbit with brown ears as the lid-knob. Infinitely preferable to a conference lunchtable.

Check out this piece of serious geek beauty (YouTube, with music). It and other things I learned today have intensely excited the robot bees. They are giddy, energized, and incredibly noisy. I bet you could hear them clicka-ticking if you put your ear against my ear.

I just had a moment of intense nostalgia for Max Headroom. I wanted to use the word “blipvert” as a simile—”It’s like a blipvert, but in a good way”—but then I remembered you were Max Headroom-deprived. It’s not available on Netflix (peeve!) or to purchase on DVD anywhere (outrage!!), but is apparently available here on AOL Video.

A cavalcade of geeky fun, courtesy of Anubh (who’s in the education PhD program at UVA). Enjoy.