Random Stuff XLV
The results of the 2008 Silly Straw Poll of Most Favored Feline Water Sources are now in. Cats from all corners of the household were asked to rate the available venues for liquid refreshment; what follows is a summary of the results.
In a stunning upset, Droplets Licked from Dad’s Shins with Sandpaper Tongues as He Emerges from the Shower was the unanimous favorite, followed closely by The Thin Trickle from the Tap in the Bathroom Sink. The defending champion, Toilet Water (Any Style), finished a disappointing third, but still well ahead of Water Fished Out of Dirty Glasses in the Kitchen Sink. And as expected, Water Set next to Our Food and Kept Fresh for Some Unfathomable Reason came in dead last by a mile.
I've become hopelessly addicted to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, when I had far too much to do, I lost half the afternoon browsing through two years' worth of telescope images, searching for the ideal background for my desktop. I collected eight or nine of the best ones, and opened up each class period of the last two weeks of my genetics course with a brief description of a photo projected from my laptop. This turned out to be a delightfully effective means to get my students awake and interested at nine in the morning-I'll have to amass a full semester's worth of pictures before next January.
To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th birthday, NASA and the Hubble Heritage Project (I think) released 59 spectacular images of colliding galaxies. One particular galaxy pair, ESO 593-8, caught my eye as a good example of what happens when galaxies aren't watching where they're going. Suppose, for a moment, that you could hear in a vacuum: can you imagine what that titanic impact would sound like? (The answer would be surprising: it probably wouldn't sound like much at all. Stars in galaxies are so widely spaced relative to their size that even in a crazy galactic tangle like this one, the chance of a direct stellar collision is negligible. The vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust, on the other hand, slam into one another, triggering an orgy of star-formation so majestically fecund and unrestrained that the mere concept would make the American Family Association attempt to ban all of astronomy in the US-at least, if the sanctimonious wingnuts in charge had the mental capacity to comprehend the enormity of what was going on.)
Anyway, I thought the image of ESO 593-8 was the stuff from which PSAs are forged, so I forged one:
After I finished adding the text, flushed with pride at my mad satirical skillz, I called Kathy over to view my creation. Instead of erupting with mirth, as I expected, she stared at it for a good minute, and finally said, "It's pretty. What is it, a butterfly?" I carefully explained that the galaxies had had a collision-get it? Apparently not: all she would vouchsafe was an unsteady, "Oh, okay." So nonplussed was her reaction that even I don't think it's funny anymore. But maybe, someday, someone will.
In a stunning upset, Droplets Licked from Dad’s Shins with Sandpaper Tongues as He Emerges from the Shower was the unanimous favorite, followed closely by The Thin Trickle from the Tap in the Bathroom Sink. The defending champion, Toilet Water (Any Style), finished a disappointing third, but still well ahead of Water Fished Out of Dirty Glasses in the Kitchen Sink. And as expected, Water Set next to Our Food and Kept Fresh for Some Unfathomable Reason came in dead last by a mile.
I've become hopelessly addicted to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, when I had far too much to do, I lost half the afternoon browsing through two years' worth of telescope images, searching for the ideal background for my desktop. I collected eight or nine of the best ones, and opened up each class period of the last two weeks of my genetics course with a brief description of a photo projected from my laptop. This turned out to be a delightfully effective means to get my students awake and interested at nine in the morning-I'll have to amass a full semester's worth of pictures before next January.
To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th birthday, NASA and the Hubble Heritage Project (I think) released 59 spectacular images of colliding galaxies. One particular galaxy pair, ESO 593-8, caught my eye as a good example of what happens when galaxies aren't watching where they're going. Suppose, for a moment, that you could hear in a vacuum: can you imagine what that titanic impact would sound like? (The answer would be surprising: it probably wouldn't sound like much at all. Stars in galaxies are so widely spaced relative to their size that even in a crazy galactic tangle like this one, the chance of a direct stellar collision is negligible. The vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust, on the other hand, slam into one another, triggering an orgy of star-formation so majestically fecund and unrestrained that the mere concept would make the American Family Association attempt to ban all of astronomy in the US-at least, if the sanctimonious wingnuts in charge had the mental capacity to comprehend the enormity of what was going on.)
Anyway, I thought the image of ESO 593-8 was the stuff from which PSAs are forged, so I forged one:
After I finished adding the text, flushed with pride at my mad satirical skillz, I called Kathy over to view my creation. Instead of erupting with mirth, as I expected, she stared at it for a good minute, and finally said, "It's pretty. What is it, a butterfly?" I carefully explained that the galaxies had had a collision-get it? Apparently not: all she would vouchsafe was an unsteady, "Oh, okay." So nonplussed was her reaction that even I don't think it's funny anymore. But maybe, someday, someone will.