Month: December 2002

NASA History

By AMH

If I had all the time in the world, I could lose days of my life at the new-to-me NASA History Homepage. They’ve assembled not just the technical details but information on the people, the management of the program, and the politics involved, so you can get a number of perspectives if you poke around enough. I loved looking at the technical diagrams of the various spacecraft, even if I don’t really understand them. And they’ve put tons of their books, reports, and other publications on-line as well. I just wish more of the content was in downloadable pdf (as … Continue reading NASA History

LOTR Fans

By AMH

Of course I saw The Two Towers tonight, and of course it was wonderful, and I could blather about what I liked and what could have been done better and what adjustments they made to the book. But what I did not expect was the audience composition at the 3:45pm showing I attended. Sure, there were the hardcore geek fans with their cloaks and scruffy beards. But the most significant, and certainly the loudest, group was the early-adolescent girls with “I [heart] Frodo” painted on their face and pictures of Elijah Wood pinned to their shirt, who serenaded Orlando Bloom … Continue reading LOTR Fans

Multi-color Knitting

By AMH

To borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, I am insufferably proud of my latest craft achievment. I’ve been on a bit of a knitting kick after discovering Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books and falling in love with them, and I just finished my first sweater. It’s the “Ski Sweater in Color Patterns” from Zimmerman’s book Knitting Without Tears, which I would recommend to anyone looking to get beyond scarves and learn some intuition for garment design (the third word in the title lays the stress on the “e” rather than the “a”, in case you’re a smart alec like my … Continue reading Multi-color Knitting

Nimoy’s Ballad of Bilbo Baggins

By AMH

The combination of watching Nemesis and waiting eagerly for The Two Towers reminded me of the highly bizarre “Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy” album with the surreal and 70’s-rific Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, complete with music video. An absolute classic!

Star Trek Nemesis

By AMH

I can’t resist a Star Trek movie, no matter how much I know I should, so I saw Nemesis this evening. Full review of Star Trek: Nemesis here, but it really is as bad as you might fear from the previews. Taking a darker tone this time around really didn’t help. I’m a bit sorry I bothered to go see it, though I know that no number of bad reviews would really allow me to skip a Trek movie. I’m glad this is supposed to be the last one and I hope they stick with that promise.

Alternative Cancer Treatments

By AMH

A wide review of alternative medical treatments for cancer recently came out of Harvard, indicating that some of these treatments do help, while others don’t have evidence for their efficacy. Also important, the review seems to look at how these treatments interact with traditional cancer treatments. I can’t find the study itself, unfortunately.

Digital Timestamping

By AMH

I’m swiping this directly from Allen but he is very correct in reminding researchers than without dated research notes you may be undermining your ability to receive patents. With so many of us keeping our records electronically, Stamper, a free PGP Digital Timestamping service, is a very useful resource. Thanks for finding this, Allen!

500-mile Email

By AMH

One of those “making the rounds” stories that I enjoyed a lot: “The Case of the 500-mile Email”. Probably one of the funniest sysadmin stories I’ve heard – it’s told well here. [via Mr. Barrett]

History of Carnegie Libraries

By AMH

An interesting article on the many, many libraries that Andrew Carnegie founded around the world: Deconstructing the Philanthropic Library. It’s a brief discussion of why Carnegie chose to found libraries in particular; a large part is his own history of self-education and a belief in a meritocracy. I find the background image odd given the content – it gives an unsubtle message that the article is really about the money. I thought the Carnegie libraries I frequented growing up were quite good, though the main branch attached to The Carnegie Institute was intimidating. [via BookPeople]