Elaine

Missing

No, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth: our Internet connection did. We get wireless broadband access from a relatively small company, and they don’t have weekend tech support. We lost our connection on Saturday, and wasn’t able to get hold of anyone at the support desk until this morning. Half an hour later the problem was fixed when they rebooted an interface card on the tower from which we get our signal. I knew it was probably something simple like that, so it was very frustrating.

Undistracted by the WWW, I spent Sunday converting the static pages of my website to use the Perl Template module for page templates. and fixing up broken xhtml code. The former was a lot faster and easier than the latter. I have plans for a little redesign, now that the housekeeping is done. I only added one page, and you are welcome to visit my recipe list.

Kaleidoscope

dtoy_vs_byokal is a kaleidoscope where your drawings on the screen are animated into a kaleidoscope. (via By the Way.

HubbleSite – Wallpaper

Lots of astronomical desktop wallpapaer can be found at HubbleSite – Wallpaper. (via Sugerfused)

Colorado Skies

Colorado Skies
After the storm yesterday….

Dear AOL

Dear AOL,

I think it was so nice of you to send us that nifty plastic DVD case in the mail a few days ago. It didn’t take more than a few seconds to remove the stickers and the trash inside. I am not sure why you keep sending us stuff, when we have never been your customer, and are far outside of your customer target group, but the plastic DVD case was a winner. (I was about to write that you couldn’t pay us to use your service, but decided we are open to offers.) Anyway, thanks again.

Love, Elaine

Machholz Meets the Pleiades

Machholz Meets the Pleiades in today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Diminished

It has been decades since I was in an APA together with Anna Vargo, but I still remember distinctly my disappointment when she decided to drop out. I was distressed when I learned that she was seriously ill last fall, and grieved when I learned that she died last night. kinzel has a lovely tribute to a lovely person.

Sunrise Tree

Click on the photo for a high resolution version suitable for a desktop background or other purpose.

Horse Evolution

The Horse Evolution faq from Talk Origins discusses the evolution of horses: At this point in the early Eocene, equids were not yet very different from the other perissodactyl groups; the Hyracotherium genus includes some species closely related to (or even ancestral to) rhinos and tapirs, as well as species that are distinctly equine. [Note: the particular species that probably gave rise to the rest of the equids, H. vassacciense, may be renamed, perhaps to “Protorohippus”.]

Lose a Kangaroo?

I am trying to imagine what it would be like to go out and feed my horses one morning, and find a kangaroo hopping near the barn, like this woman in Wisconsin. (via Pewter Gryphon’s Lair) The horses would certainly freak.