This can't be a good thing.

I've been reading about this.

A monster awakens?: "The inflated plain is a potential and serious hazard and possible precursor to a large hydrothermal explosion event."

Not going to Yellowstone any time soon. No siree Bob.

Got My Coffee and iTunes

Yes, a long week, but making some progress at lowering the corporate blood pressure. Now working on mine. It's 3:30 pm, someone just made a Starbucks run (Tall coffee, black, thank you) and I've got String Quartet In G Major, Op. 153 Allegro Animato by Camille Saint-Saens playing in the background. I started with Tom Waits, but it ain't that kind of afternoon.

Speaking of black coffee, here's a little bit of Murray family history. My father was one of four sons, raised not an 1/8th of a mile from where I grew up (actually, my childhood home was my great-grandfather's house and his father was the Irishman himself, who came from County Cork in the early 1860s. His brother joined the Union Army. Just like a scene out of "The Gangs of New York".) Anyhoo, my father is a big coffee drinker. He can drink it all day and all night long. And he drinks it black. My grandmother, though ill and in a nursing home, drinks it black as well. I've always said that she'd disinherit me if I put anything in my coffee. The rule around the Murray house is that anyone of any age can drink coffee, but you better not put anything in it.

Diane, not being a Murray by birth, ignores me and takes cream with her coffee. I can't stand it that way. I will, on occasion, have a fancy drink or cappuccino, but that's not really coffee, now is it?

I've also discovered my father's secret - he drinks his coffee weak, see-through. A cup of the way I drink it would straighten his hair.

And speaking of hair, he still has most of his, while I do not and have not for some time. My Grampa Murray was the same way. I recently saw a picture of him and my Uncle Jim - they were kneeling by what appears to be a bobcat they've shot - don't know where it was taken. Grampa passed away when I was seven or eight and I remember him well, but I was surprised at the physical resemblance. Shave my beard and I don't think you could tell us apart.

There's a man I would have benefited from knowing better.

CptnRandy On The Air

I'll be doing my day job tonight. Catch me live, or check out the archives, when they get it archived . . .

PC Chat Computer Radio Show

Then again, only if you really need to be sold some software.

What we need is one of these

OK, actually several of these, but I'll settle for one to start.

Space Elevator

Fantasy? Not on your life. The science is sound, as is the economics. Also see The Fountains of Paradise

Needs a warning label

I winced to see the photo about this major screwup that essentially destroyed a satellite, but this is what caught my attention:

"IMPACT ON PROGRAM/PROJECT AND SCHEDULE:

The shock and vibration of the fall undoubtedly caused tremendous damage. Significant rework and retest will be required. NOAA-N Prime is planned for launch in 2008."

They're on final prep on a satellite that won't launch for 5 years?

Now ask yourself, would you want a computer that was 5 years old? How about a 5 year old cell phone? Are we really that stacked up in getting things into space?

Our space program is more screwed up than I thought. Yes, the shuttle is aging and dangerous, but I haven't seen a strong plan for what's next and when it will be ready. This is important stuff.

Severe Damage To Spacecraft

Oooph. Ack.

Well, my wardrobe has been lacking in hoodies, so I suppose this whole Blogger Pro going bye bye could be considered a good thing.

Except I don't wear hoodies and I spent what, $60 bucks to get access to these features? I'd prefer a refund, thank you.

Today's Fortune Cookie

Behind an able man, there are always.

Eerily accurate, don't you think?

Maybe the Innis Mode Would Help

I saw this very interesting article, linked from Metafilter: Guardian Unlimited | Life | 'Science cannot provide all the answers'.

And yes, this is my experience as well. In all walks of life, one finds very intelligent people who continue to believe in God and an afterlife. Why is that?

Well, for one, I've found that many who have success in a particular area gain that by focus, that is exclusion of other areas of inquiry and close examination of a singular topic. That leaves them with their cultural equipment largely intact. They were brought up believing, and remain so. Ceasing to believe is very hard. It is much more rare to begin to believe when one was brought up without belief.

In addition, ceasing to believe is a very painful process, that may mean unraveling other assumptions about the world, breaking ties with friend and family, and perhaps most important, leaving a supportive community that religion may form. I've known many people within a particular religion who cease to believe, but keep their mouths shut and go through the motions, rather than give up this very real support.

Perhaps most importantly, ceasing to believe requires the abandonment of hope for an afterlife. When I examine that carefully, I see in myself that yearning for more, the hope for continuation. I don't find a lack of another life bleak and nihilistic, but it sure would be nice to go on. And beyond that, the thought of being reunited with loved ones is nearly irresistible.

It's so damn hard to give that up.

But then again, it is worth it.

How, you ask? Perspective, my friend. Give up all that, step back from the mess and it becomes possible to begin to see how it all works. Science, history, hell, even philosophy. None of it really comes together when you must force it into a particular believe system.

And something very astute from the article.

"Colin Humphreys says that quite a number of his colleagues at Cambridge are also believers. 'My impression is - and it is just an impression - that there are many more scientists on the academic staff who are believers than arts people.'

Tom McLeish says something similar. He cheerfully offers several reasons why that might be so, one of which might be called the postmodernist effect. 'Our dear friends in the humanities do get themselves awfully confused about whether the world exists, about whether each other exists, about whether words mean anything. Until they have sorted out whether cats and dogs exist or not, or are only figments in the mind of the reader, let alone the writer, then they are going to have problems talking about God.' "

For simplifying effect, let me lay out a few things that helps me:

1. The world is real.
2. While I'll grant that there may be more than "one way of knowing", science is the ONLY way of uncovering the fundamental workings of the universe AND communicating them reliably.
3. With an open, critical mind, one can always update and change one's maps.

"Christ, what an imagination I've got."