Scarlett Letters

jaylake recently asked his readers, "What things are inconceivable without special training?" The question garnered some fascinating discussion.

In my bout of insomnia, I headed over to The New York Times, where I found this article, which might well be one answer to his question: 9 Billion-Year-Old ‘Dark Energy’ Reported

9 billion years. ::boggle::

Received these links in e-mail from oldmangrumpus. They are not to be missed, to wit:

Who needs space artists when we've got Cassini taking pictures?

And I I didn't know that there are lakes on Titan, but I think it's pretty cool.

Really. You need to click through these links. Incredible stuff.

For the science fiction writers among us: It's not the eyes, but the tongue that can 'see' best

First, let me thank everyone kind enough to send me compliments via meme. I love you all in a serious way.

Next: Links posted everywhere but that I want in my journal, too:

The Gospel of Judas has been discovered, translated and will be the subject of a National Geographic special Sunday night (opposite West Wing, dammit!). Extremely cool.

And while we're on the subject of things Biblical, how about we talk about walking on water?

Some Hollywood type decided that Exodus would look better on Dougray Scott and Naveen Andrews (who plays a character nowhere in either the original film or in the Torah, near as I can remember) than it does on Charlton Heston and Yul Bryner. Time will tell, but me, I'll take Bryner's swagger and Edward G. Robinson's corny menace over Hollywood pretty boys any day of the week. (That doesn't mean I don't appreciate either Scott or Andrews—I do, but, gee, talk about The Most Unnecessary Remake of All Time! Only a remake of Gone with the Wind would surpass it.)

In other news, more in line with science, a possible missing link has been discovered.

And lastly, I should note that I was $10.00 worth of bad today. I bought myself a new capo and strap for my guitar. My old capo disappeared years go, but I had a pretty, pink-embroidered strap that I adored and I don't know what happened to it. Its loss is kind of a heartbreaker—I've had it since i was 16—but I found a pretty black, blue and purple one for $5.00 that will do nicely as a substitute until Pinky turns up again. Fingers crossed.

Received in today's A Word A Day e-mail, this pleased me greatly:

This week's theme: words borrowed from German.

gegenschein (GAY-guhn-shyn) noun

A faint oval patch of light directly opposite the sun in the
night sky, caused by reflection of sunlight by dust particles.
Also known as counterglow.

How cool is that?

The Saint Augustine volcano in Alaska cleared its throat a bit yesterday. There's a nice article and an impressive accompanying photograph (apparently taken by SF writer Michael Armstrong, who cowrote the piece). Nifty stuff. They say we may be in for more fireworks before Augustine is done. Kewl.

This just in from The New York Times:

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SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) -- NASA officials said Wednesday they would ground future space shuttle flights because foam debris that brought down Columbia is still a risk.
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Read the whole (brief, depressing) story here.

Scientists recover preserved soft tissue from ancient dinosaur

"WASHINGTON -- For more than a century, the study of dinosaurs has been limited to fossilized bones. Now, researchers have recovered 70 million-year-old soft tissue, including what may be blood vessels and cells, from a Tyrannosaurus rex in Montana....

"The soft tissues were recovered from the thighbone of a T. rex, known as MOR 1125, that was found in a sandstone formation in Montana. The dinosaur was about 18 years old when it died."

Read the whole story here.

One of my fondest memories of living in Seattle was the first time I ever watched, start to finish, a total eclipse of the moon, maybe five or six years ago. I went out to Gasworks Park on the edge of Lake Union and up to the top of the hill with its enormous sundial, and camped out. As the evening wore on, people turned up with wine and drums and candles. Once the moon was completely eclipsed, the drumming got more intense, and as light began to edge out the shadow, people got more excited. Once the light reached about the midpoint, people began to howl like wolves. I joined the howling chorus (second time I’ve howled like that in public—and loved it every bit as much as the first time). We howled the moon back to full and danced under its glow. Someone gifted me with a crystal that I still have in my jewelry cabinet. It’s a memory full of magic for me.

Tonight’s eclipse was a little less cosmic in the hippie sense but no less spectacular. My friend B picked me up for dinner just as the moon was half eclipsed. We watched until it was fully eclipsed and then went off for pasta. All along the way we drove, people sat out on the sidewalk and on their lawns watching. As we emerged from the restaurant after our meal, a tiny sliver of light appeared on the moon’s edge.

By the time I got home, the moon was half lit again. I grabbed an afghan and sat on my balcony, a perfect front row seat for watching the rest of the eclipse. The view was spectacular—well, it always is. There are some nights the lunar light’s so bright in my living room that I don’t need to turn on the fixture. I just sat and watched until it was full again, thinking to myself that there was simply nothing between me and the moon. Cassiopeia twinkled off to the side. My downstairs neighbor came out on his balcony for a while, smoking a cigarette. My next door neighbor came out onto hers and we all just watched quietly. It was just a lovely, lovely half hour or so.

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Other notes for the evening
As we drove to the restaurant for dinner, I couldn’t stop looking out the window at the moon, and I apologized for my inattention to B. He said, with complete aplomb, “I understand. I come second to celestial phenomena. You’ve got your priorities in order just fine.”

I received some smashed pennies in the mail. It's always a good day when smashed pennies come.

I love my friends.

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Articles on the eclipse

The colors of eclipse

Top ten facts about the eclipse

Lunar eclipse could make baseball history

The universe is a wondrous place indeed. How beautiful!