(no subject)
Mar. 1st, 2007 09:50 amPolitics: Edwards is now calling for fully accepting gays in the military. Between that and offering an actual universal healthcare plan, he's got my support for now. He may lose it again if other candidates catch do the same, but I'm definitely grateful for him moving the benchmarks on this.
Science!: Went to a New Horizons presentation yesterday. It's a probe to Pluto that's presently swinging by Jupiter to pick up some speed. It had some neat new pictures including vulcanic plumes off Io that were frigging huge! Apparently Io is so vulcanic because of tidal effects from Jupiter. The size of the planet is shifting by like 10 kms depending on where in orbit it is. Interestingly, Jupiter also has wacky magnetic fields because it pulls materials from Io's eruptions. The models looked really neat, I hope they get some real pictures of the actual phenomenon.
Life: I'll be having some boarders this month. First from DU then from Canada. That should be fun. On a less fun note, my laptop is no longer charging. Not sure whether it's worth the $100-200 to fix it or whether it's time to switch to a new laptop. Fortunately, I just reinstalled windows, so all my data was completely back up. It looks like the Panasonic toughbooks are running ~$2,000 on the low side, so I may think about this one for a bit.
Science!: Went to a New Horizons presentation yesterday. It's a probe to Pluto that's presently swinging by Jupiter to pick up some speed. It had some neat new pictures including vulcanic plumes off Io that were frigging huge! Apparently Io is so vulcanic because of tidal effects from Jupiter. The size of the planet is shifting by like 10 kms depending on where in orbit it is. Interestingly, Jupiter also has wacky magnetic fields because it pulls materials from Io's eruptions. The models looked really neat, I hope they get some real pictures of the actual phenomenon.
Life: I'll be having some boarders this month. First from DU then from Canada. That should be fun. On a less fun note, my laptop is no longer charging. Not sure whether it's worth the $100-200 to fix it or whether it's time to switch to a new laptop. Fortunately, I just reinstalled windows, so all my data was completely back up. It looks like the Panasonic toughbooks are running ~$2,000 on the low side, so I may think about this one for a bit.