Puerto Rico Gets a 9/11 of Its Own

Early this morning a number of large storage tanks in an oil refinery in Puerto Rico experienced sudden combustible failure. Kaboom (link goes to news story). Causes yet unknown 14 hours later.



Being an ex-pat, the only way I could get visual reportage was via the streamed video provided by telemundopr.com (the main TV station in PR). One of the things that struck me when I saw their anchor broadcasting from the rooftop of the station building (below)....



... is how much it reminded me of another anchor, broadcasting from the roof of another building, not so long ago:


Telemundo, however, has not stopped showing commercial breaks, and has thus wasted no time in creating a neat little scare-o-graphic to act as transition:

I wonder how long before somebody from the Gulf corporation gives them a call and tells them to cut it out.

Philip, on gay marriage

"What do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?"

A quick physics / mechanics question

Does the burning of a rabbit corpse release more energy than freezing a dead rabbit?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/heating-plant-burns-bunni_n_322160.html

I know you don't really think I torture cats for fun

But, if I told you that this is my cat's absolute favorite thing in the world, would you believe me?

Hubris

Dear Google,

I can't think of any precedent of a company who takes off all graphical or textual references to itself off its product, even if only for a day. This is the virtual press release equivalent to shouting from the mountaintop "We have arrived and we can fuck with you".


Then again, the name is right there in the browser's Location bar... presumably typed in by the user itself.

Still..... celebrating the bar code? The 57th anniversary of the bar code? It's not even a round number!

How about this instead:

1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the far side of the moon.

(from the same "Today in history" page on Wikipedia you got the bar code thing -- same level of laziness).

I sure wish you would spend less time feeling self-important and accomplished and more time fixing the damn GMail interface. It's embarrassing. Yahoo Mail has a MUCH better interface (rivaling that of desktop Outlook) but unfortunately, in my experience, their performance record is spotty (and not just occasionally). Still, a quick check I've just done shows that, at least today, it's working a lot better. Maybe I'll switch back.......

Love,

Juanolator

"I love picnics"

Governors Island

New York City recently (re) acquired rights to Governors Island, which is a small, unpopulated, and mostly undeveloped enclave used as a US Coast Guard station for some decades. It is now being turned into.... well, no one is quite sure yet, but so far a lot of people are enjoying taking the free bike-friendly ferry service from Manhattan and Brooklyn to it on weekends for some traffic-free biking and exploring.





Governors Island Preservation web site.

This link goes to a full set of photos taken by me on Saturday.

Moon Shots

Last week I took my telescope upstairs and got my first shots through a camera mount I've had for over a year and never got a chance to try out. It basically allows you to attach any camera (pocket sized.. 35mm / SLR.. as long as it has a standard screw tripod attachment) to the telescope and have the lens point right into the 'scope eyepiece. It's incredibly tricky to align it correctly and focus (there's TWO things to focus -- by the time you've got it mostly right the subject has wandered off the frame due to the Earth's rotation...)

There's at least one or two good ones, though... Click on the photo to see the rest.

(I also like the inadvertent "porthole effect" that you get from the edge of the eyepiece appearing inside the shot frame in some of them -- almost makes it look like you're looking at it through the window of a space ship...)

Lubbock

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love."

- Butch Hancock, Musician, the Flatlanders

Polly Wants a MacArthur Fellowship Grant

Do you buy this? Does anybody have a link to the full documentary (or some literature that would flesh out these claims?)