Hubble Servicing Mission 4

Well, the mission was a great success. I'll post some info on my Relative Navigation Sensors experiment at some point, but for now, you have to check out these pictures summarizing the mission. There are some incredible shots here.

Cosmos-Iridium Collision from AGI

Here's a link to a cool movie from AGI of the recent satellite collision (Iridium w/ Cosmos). I particularly like the end, where they show all of the items in the database as green ellipsoids (I assume the size of the ellipsoids represent position uncertainty).

CitySweat Blog

Jodi is fitness blogging. Check it out.

Anxious for spring

I just finished Cat's Cradle, which I had actually read before but didn't remember it until about 50 pages in. Must not have made a conscious impact on me the first time. I loved it the second time though, and think it may have been what started my joking a couple years ago that I wanted to invent a religion. Worth checking out.

A couple lines a particularly liked:

Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.
"Certainly," said man.
"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.
And He went away.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.

And the last rights of Bokononism (the made up religion in Cat's Cradle):

God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn't have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait…
To find out for certain what my wampeter* was…
And who was in my karass**…
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.

Overdue update to the reading list

Anyone read any good books lately? I guess I haven't updated my reading list in about two and a half years, so here's all that I've read (that I can remember):

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steal - Loved it... non-fiction... been told it's a bit dry at places, which I guess I agree with

Orson Scott Card, The Worthing Saga - I always enjoy reading Orson Scott Card, even it if it's never as good as Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. That said, something about his philosophy that rubs off in his writing and alters my mental outlook in a way I don't necessarily enjoy. Someone smarter than me could probably explain it (please do!)

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha - introspective, interesting, a quick read, in the Buddhist direction. I liked it.

Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 A Space Odyssey - kinda surprised it's the first time I ever read it. I enjoyed it.

Stephen W. Hawking, The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe - I pick a Hawking book up every now and then. I guess I get a little more every time, but don't ever really love to read them.

Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Moon Shot - interesting, especially given my profession, but not a great read.

Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild - I love Krakauer, and this is a good read. Haven't seen the movie yet, but I like how Krakauer presented Christopher McCandless as not just dumbass who went unprepared into the Alaskan wilderness (which seems to be the general opinion of him.)

Dan Brown, Deception Point - I liked the Da Vinci Code, so I figured I'd give Dan another shot. This was a popcorn novel. I enjoyed it, but seems like we should be reading stuff with a bit more substance, no?

Cormac McCarthy, The Road - Picked this one up at BWI airport on my way out of town. Or was it at Omaha on the way home? Can't remember. Nah, must have been BWI, Carole would not have sent me home from Sioux Falls with nothing to read! I actually enjoyed this one, read it very quickly. Not sure I'd recommend it, but it makes you think about what might happen if the Yellowstone caldera erupted or the big on hit...

David McCullough, John Adams - Awesome. Watching the HBO series now. So far, I wouldn't want to watch the series without reading the book.

Stephen A. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage - The Lewis and Clark story. A good read.

J.K. Rowling, The first 3 books of the Harry Potter series - I put off reading these for quite a while, until my sister threatened to disown me. She was right. I love them. Now the challenge is not reading them too quickly (and spending time with my wife even if I have one here that I haven't finished.)

Well, guess that's it. I'm sure there were others, but that's all I remember and can find laying around...

Best of Science Blogs

Being a dyed in the wool dork, I enjoyed checking out the best science blogs of 2008. I enjoyed these three in particular: Bad Astonomy, Real Climate , and 60-Second Science.

The Next Hubble

The folks at Hubblesite have created a new web site for Hubble's successor, The James Webb Space Telescope.  Check out both pages.