Nearby galaxy discovered. Astronomers have discovered the closest known galaxy to the Milky Way, a tiny galaxy in... [spacetoday.net]

It seems that we're not very good neighbors, galactically speaking, that is. Our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, is well, devouring the galaxy next door.

Astronomers have identified a new galaxy nearer to us than any other. But our Milky Way's appetite for smaller, nearby galaxies means that its days are numbered.....

What the stargazers saw was the Big Dog's demise. Using ultra-bright stars to trace the galaxy's shape, Ibata and his colleagues found that its stars and gas are being appropriated by the gravitational pull of the much larger Milky Way1.

"It's unlikely to hold together much longer," says another of the group, Michele Bellazzini of Bologna Observatory in Italy. "The Milky Way has been progressively stealing its stars and pulling it apart."

Oops. Sorry about that.

I'll get me spiral armed coat.

11:27:40 PM     leave/read comments []

Man!

Look at all the FireWire drives this guy has! Let's all take a moment and say a little prayer for him, shall we? He just installed Panther.

Back, interrupted....

A shot of the new cat is needed, since this is pure, pristine Panther.
Mac OS X 10.3 has been the motor of the computer for two days and I haven't "opened the box" yet to find out what I like -- or don't -- about the new operating system.
James Duncan Davidson gave us his "ten things I dig" a month ago.
I did wipe the hard disk clean, repartitioned it and reinstalled Mac OS X and 9.2.2 from scratch, as well as all the programmes I've decided to keep. The upgrade can be done in just a few hours, but mine took three days because I completely "reinvented" my machine in the light of the past few years with OS X.
The fun bit, the exploring and the hacking, begins tomorrow.
After that, blogging resumes.
[taliesin's log]

We'll see......

9:13:46 PM     leave/read comments []

Japanese Leader's Party Holds On to Power in Vote. But voters handed big gains to the main opposition party in a ballot that could help lead Japan toward a two-party system. By Norimitsu Onishi. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

The status quo is shaken, but not upset as Japan inches towards true two-party government. I wonder if it'll wave to the U.S., which is being dragged by the Republicans towards a mono-party system, as they pass each other?

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's governing coalition held on to power in parliamentary elections on Sunday, even as voters handed big gains to the main opposition party in a ballot that could help lead Japan toward a two-party system.

Despite his personal popularity, Mr. Koizumi failed to get the popular mandate that could help him decisively push through economic and political reforms against the conservatives in his own Liberal Democratic Party.

But the strong showing by the Democratic Party, the main opposition, which campaigned on a reformist agenda, could put pressure on the governing party to stick to Mr. Koizumi's plans to curb public spending and to reshape the economy, the world's second largest.

Also:

Japan-Election UPDATED.

It's official: governing coalition secures a stable majority. [Nippon Goro Goro]

Japan's ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) retained control of the House of Representatives in Sunday's general election with a stable majority while the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) notched hefty gains, according to final returns of most constituencies.

But the long-dominant LDP headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi lost its majority in the lower house, possibly threatening the stability of his administration in moving forward with structural reforms to lift Japan's long-ailing economy.

The DPJ secured 177 seats to become the most powerful parliamentary rival to the LDP. This suggests Japan may be entering an era in which two major parties compete for power. The DPJ held 137 before the election.

8:54:14 PM    

DUCK!

My pal Tim checks in with the Clams:

From: "The Mighty Tim"
Subject: DUCK!

G'day Clams,

This is to warn you that old man winter is on his way. We have had two nights where the temperature dipped into the minus side of the scale. It's evil clams. It's a seasonal clamity, I tells ya.

On my fire escape, the crows are outnumbering the squirrels to get the peanuts. And crows look kind of desperate flying away with one sad little peanut in their beaks. Why, even the bluejays have a system whereby they can carry two at a time, but the poor ol' dumb crows just don't seem to get it. (see attachment now)

6:09:58 PM    

"Surely you can spare a minute to clean your ears? Take a one-minute vacation from the life you are living.

One-minute vacations are unedited recordings of somewhere, somewhen. Sixty seconds of something else. Sixty seconds to be someone else.

A new one-minute vacation will be added each week on Monday if I can manage it."

3:50:00 PM    

Lou never got so see this view, but I did and I saved it, so I could share it and so I could remember that I had seen the view.

3:46:40 PM     leave/read comments []

Even more items recovered from the big data boo-boo....

Aliens are out there, say scientists. Education: Scientists are likely to discover intelligent alien life by 2025, according to a book published this month. [Guardian Unlimited]

Scientists are likely to discover intelligent alien life by 2025, according to a book published this month.

In Cosmic Company, Professor Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI institute, and Alex Barnett, chief executive office of the Chabot Space Centre, both based in California, argue that contact with aliens is only a matter of time - and it is all down to getting the figures right.

I'm pretty sure the ET's aren't going to come running because of those singing Canadian children's version of "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact.Day)." Heck, they're not even going to call. It's up up to us to be listening, and according to Shostak and Barnett's book, we only have to wait until 2025.


3:43:51 PM     leave/read comments []

More items recovered from the big data boo-boo....

Dept. of No Thanks, I'll Walk.

NASA SCIENTISTS TO STUDY LAKE'S PRIMITIVE LIFE TO LEARN ABOUT MARS

Yes, our space program is boldly going where llamas have gone before, to the heights of the Bolivian Andes, to "study microscopic life forms in some of the highest lakes on Earth atop a South American volcano to learn what life may have been like on early Mars," according to a NASA press release.

"From Oct. 27 to Nov. 23, scientists will conduct field tests to examine life forms in several lakes, including the Licancabur volcano crater lake, at nearly 20,000 ft. in the Andean Altiplano on the border of Bolivia and Chile.

Studying life in these lakes not only provides critical information about the habitability potential of early Mars and other planets in the solar system, it also opens a window into our own past to reveal how life survived on Earth 2 billion years before the ozone layer formed," said the project's principal investigator and expedition lead, Dr. Nathalie A. Cabrol of NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and the SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.

Intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation, low oxygen, low atmospheric pressure and cold temperatures make the environment a close analog to martian lakes 3.5 billion years ago. Despite the extreme conditions at Licancabur, scientists say microscopic life is present and diverse. Its survival strategy might be very ancient, according to Cabrol."

Go to Mars without leaving the planet! Man, there must be some good shit growing in them Bolivian hills.....

3:43:17 PM     leave/read comments []

Some items recovered from the big data boo-boo....

Images of Space Get Second Look. Stunning photographs of space taken by unmanned space probes are getting a second look. A panel of scientists, writers and artists meet to discuss whether these images can rightfully be called art. Erik Baard reports from New York. [Wired News]

It's humbling to know that a robot can make such awe-inspiring photos. But you know, no robot can make Sting say:

I thought not.

"The images, available on the Internet at Planetary Photojournal and Planetary Image Atlas -- haven't yet been fully digested by our culture."

By the way, they're talking about the photos from outer space, not Sting. Sorry.

3:41:14 PM     leave/read comments []

Man claims bank fired him for having HIV, being gay.

In a related story, unidentified bank officials were seen singing "Fire The Homo! Fire the Homo!" at a local watering hole.

When he notified the bank that he wanted to return to work in March, he was informed that his position at the Lambertville branch had been filled. The bank assigned him to the Palmer Township branch.

Mallozzi reported for work at the Palmer branch and found that the computer system was different from the one he was familiar with at the Lambertville branch.

Although Mallozzi was not trained to use the computers at the Palmer branch, his supervisors complained that he could not do his job without assistance. This complaint was the first negative job report since he was employed by United Trust, the suit says.

Mallozzi was fired March 19 after three days back on the job following his diagnosis. The bank cited only one negative job report as reason for his termination, the suit says.

3:24:51 PM    

You know, I tried it and never could get the damn thing to work. Obviously, lots of other folks could.

Source: Boing Boing Blog; 11/9/03; 1:49:12 PM

Average Internet self-identity.

Inter.Face is the winner of last year's Machinista Russian art festival. It invites visitors to drag and-drop graphic facial-anatomy elements to avatars of themselves; once the project ran through, all the avatars were combined and smoothed to generate an "average net self-identity."

Link

[Boing Boing Blog]

2:39:01 PM     leave/read comments []

Crowds Gather to Watch Total Lunar Eclipse. Crowds in every continent but Australia reveled in the relative rarity of a total lunar eclipse on Saturday night. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Science]

Sadly, here in Nebraska, clouds showed up just in time to cover the moon a few minutes before totality.

Sky-watchers in every continent but Australia reveled in the relative rarity of a total lunar eclipse Saturday night -- but as stargazers have noted for centuries, it was a matter of celestial perspective.

``From the moon, they're having a solar eclipse,'' said Dean Regas, an astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory Center.

1:08:42 AM    

Voters in Japan are casting their ballots  in a general election that will determine whether Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has clear public backing to press on with his economic reforms. [Nippon Goro Goro]

Happy election day, Japan!

12:58:08 AM     leave/read comments []

Take special note of this part:

An official US army review leaked to the US NGO globalsecurity.org has revealed that the army had no plan for the occupation of Baghdad.

Officially titled the Third Infantry Division (Mechanised) After Action Report, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the study provides the first formal internal view of the Iraq war from the point of view of the soldiers who brought down Saddam Hussein.

The report provides official confirmation of a complete absence of high-level military and political planning to manage the aftermath of victory and indicates some key problems that continue to hamper US army effectiveness to this day.

Some of the lack of planning first became apparent at Baghdad International Airport (BIA): 'Multiple military and inter-agency organisations vied to set up operations at BIA, but the (3rd Infantry) Brigade Combat Team controlling BIA was too engaged in continu ing combat operations to coordinate this adequately.'

The report continues that the 3rd Infantry Division itself, which had been engaged in some of the heaviest fighting on the outskirts of Baghdad, 'lacked guidance' on how to deal with the different competing Iraqis they encountered. 'Ongoing struggles for power, establishing security without the benefit of a functioning police system, and re-establishing a pay system for government workers continue to plague the restoration of "normalcy" to Baghdad,' it said.

Chilling.

12:16:28 AM     leave/read comments []