Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Cassini-Huygens
June 28, 2004

On Wednesday Casini-Huygens is going to pass through the rings of Saturn. I suppose that it will take some really cool pictures as it completes its one and only pass through the rings.

This project is pretty neat besides its passage through the rings. The probe is giong to orbit Saturn for a while, but it’s going to eject a lander that is going to check out Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Titan looks to be a pretty interesting place. 1/4 the diameter of Earth, it has an atmosphere that goes out 600 miles (that’s 10 times the depth of Earth’s atmosphere) that has a lot of methane gas in it. Scientists say that there might even be liquid lakes of methane on Titan. Hopefully, it survives and sends back good pictures, even though the landing isn’t until November, I think.

Exhibit 1.1
June 25, 2004

I’ve been spending too much time lately working on this blasted image gallery plugin. Too much time especialyl compared to how much time I’ve spent actually generating images to post.

But I have released a new version of the Exhibit plugin, 1.1. 1.1 offers some exciting new user interface enhancements that nobody who regularly reads this blog will care about. Suffice to say, they’re pretty cool. Using Exhibit makes it much easier to gather and output images.

Desperately Seeking
June 24, 2004

Married White Couple with 3-year-old daughter and incoming (late November) newborn seeks compatible family in the Downingtown/West Chester (Chester County, PA) area for recreational companionship. Qualified candidates should have similarly aged children. Progressive applicants must enjoy similar interests, have an adventurous leaning, and be available for group vacations. Reasonable proximity is a must. Forward inquiries via email to ringmaster [at] midnightcircus [dot] com.

Why is it so hard to find compatible people to hang out with?

Gmail
June 22, 2004

I got a Gmail account today. Everybody else has one, so why shouldn’t I? Of course, picking a name that hasn’t already been taken was a challenge. The “ringmaster” account was taken, and I really don’t care to use my real name as an email address. I spent some time putting in some names that I’ve used for email in the past, along with some new ones.

In the end, I chose something clever for my epithet. I’m sure that with a little thought you can guess what it is, since it’s probably the most clever word in this post that I could have used.