Screenshot: A Weblog

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 well as the nicely searchable html) so one could flip through entire documents with more ease.

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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 with shrieks and hoots when he appeared on the screen or did something exciting. Lord of the Rings has become a teen heartthrob movie, and a corner of me suspects that market segment is how a particularly out-of-character and out-of-genre scene for Bloom came about. The phenomenon is utterly bizarre, and I feel as if these girls are missing the point of the movie. They don't seem to want to be Arwin or Eowyn, or join in the fantasy or Tolkien's world. They were the crowd that wasn't comparing the movie to the book afterwards, though they were fans enough to buy tickets for a show that sold out days ago.

And there is the odd way in which the teenaged girls latched on to the most genderless of the men in the movie. Even as the hero, Viggo got no cheers as his name appeared in the credits -- have these girls no eyes???? It's so easy to forget the appeal of the non-threatening, cute male to an adolescent girl. But then why the lack of love for my favorite hobbit, Sam? He's sweet and strong and faithful and absolutely adorable to boot. Those girls puzzle me greatly, but at least they are helping support some movies I love for a change.

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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 brother and were going to ask...). I made the sweater with Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Ranch Red and Black; I think it took five skeins of red and four of black. I love working with Wool-Ease, and for a first sweater I wanted something cheaper than the expensive boutique yarns (and Wool-Ease isn't too much more than a nice acrylic) but a nice enough yarn I would really wear the sweater. The 15% wool makes the texture nice, and it's a fairly thin yarn so the sweater didn't turn out too bulky - particularly nice since there's always an extra strand being carried along the backside. I just noticed their coming out with Wool-Ease Sport and I'm planning on grabbing a couple of balls to make socks (I've had my eye on the Highland knee sock pattern in Folk Solks but am a bit intimidated).

Anyway, back to this sweater, it was surprisingly easy to make. Zimmerman suggests knitting two colors by holding a color in each hand and alternating which you use to knit with on the fly. It sounds horrible, but it's really very easy after the first dozen or so stitches. Her pattern is also knit entirely in the round for the entire body and arms, and they you cut slits in the sides to place the armholes. This was the only part that went slightly awry. She assures readers that if you sew a basting seam next to the slit before you but with your sewing machine set on the shortest stitch length nothing will unravel, but she is wrong. My first armhole had strands popping out all over the place. The solution was to not only make a close seam before cutting, but then do a zig-zag stich up the cut edge afterwards to really tightly seal off the ends. I'm not convinced I wouldn't prefer a more complicated pattern that didn't require this step, but on the positive side, you don't have to ensure that your knit-only in the round looks the same as alterating knit and purl back and forth (it never does for me). All said, I love the sweater, and it was quick to make and easy to shape to fit me.

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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!

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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!

Posted by Amanda at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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]

Posted by Amanda at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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]

Posted by Amanda at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)