Go over to UMSF and register your opinion on the Beacon - is it on the near or far side of Victoria Crater? It will be fun to speculate on until we actually see it up close in a couple of months.

Anyone can be a Tech Pundit. Hey, they guy's as rational as Dvorak and better looking!

The Bad Astronomer looks at evidence that Tony Snow is a creationist.

Boeing's cool new passenger jet design. Should Airbus be worried? I think so. There hasn't been anything really exciting in this field since the 747.

Do you tie your shoes properly?

The cognoscenti among you know what music I've been listening too lately from the subject line. Specifically, Broadway the Hard Way. Also, the recently issued One Up, One Down live Coltrane set, Miles' Seven Steps to Heaven and Sun Ra's Live at the Gibus, Paris. Let's face it - if you ain't dead, you ain't shit.

This gave me a deep chuckle...They should see if this guy can do Dvorak as well.

The Bad Astronomy Blog provides some evidence on this point. At the very least, if shows that Mr. Snow should STFU on all science topics, since he knows less than nothing.

Some cool new wings. BA was up 2% today - don't know if it's related.

I have been tying my shoes wrong for uh.. a long time. I blamed the slippage on bad shoelaces, but Ian shows me what I was doing wrong.

Don't mind me. I'm an idiot who can't tie his own shoelaces..

I refer to an earlier JE. Following yesterday's pro-pork votes, I think it's safe to say that my hopes for reform will be unfullfilled. Very likely, the red piggies will lose control of Congress this Fall, in spite of a fairly robust economy. The good news is that they deserve to. The bad news is that means the blue piggies will take over...

On a related topic, the CATO Institute gives Bush bad marks on upholding the Constitution.

Mountain lions? In there? [Update: Search called off.]

Coolness: The Bootes Void.

I'm not keen on Bill O'Reilly either. I don't know whose views he represents, but no one I'd want to have a beer with.

Exactly where are gasoline prices? Pretty high, but if you expect that inflation has something to do with it, you are right. I predict that we will never again see gasoline below $2/gallon, and I feel fine. I don't think civilization will crash, as some predict.

I've got some new insights into NASA, and I'm afraid it's not pretty. Today, some senators proposed we abolish FEMA. How's about we abolish the CIA and NASA at the same time? This would do no damage to our intelligence efforts and would visibly help the space program. Seriously: give the science money to NSF to dole out to deserving mission PIs, ground the shuttle, deed the ISS to the Russian Space Agency (if they want it), and use large X-prize type bounties for such things as lunar bases and footprints on Mars. Save countless billions.

Of course, I'd be largely out of a job, but I'd be just fine in the long run.

Music this week: more 60s jazz (No apologies - the 60s were a golden age). Roscoe Mitchell's innovative and challenging Sound and McCoy Tyner's melodic Real McCoy. Among other things.

Yes I am.

My take so far is that they have done a good job of sticking to the "framework" idea. They don't tell you how to model or how to design an architecture, but they give you good guidance about what to model. It also appears to be highly tailorable. Not all systems have to have all views. Hmm.. how best to wade in there?

Takin' our jobs, again!

And: you have to work hard for a good practical joke, these days.

Great gift idea...

Coming May 4th. Clearly, prayer isn't working...

That Havarti is some darn tasty cheese. It even goes OK with Butter Cookies.

Watch this video of a brief discussion by Gerd Gigerenzer. His books are worth checking out as well. This sort of thing should be taught in schools - what constitutes a good decision, and what tools do we have for making them?

I have to recommend Arthur Herman's book How the Scots invented the Modern World. Fascinaitng stuff , and a good companion to Jenny Uglow's The Lunar Men. I think I'm becoming an 18th Century buff.

This immigration debate is becoming really irrational. George Will makes some sense of it, although I don't think we're every likely to physically seal the border with Mexico - and as he states, we shouldn't be too eager to do so. Fareed Zakaria was recently on the The Daily Show and also spoke sensibly about the controversy - it's mostly election year posturing at the moment.

I've been watching The Office. I think it's one of the best cast comedies I've ever seen, and Steve Carrell just freakin' nails it. It took courage to try and follow Ricky Gervais, but he's pulled it off. I don't normally watch TV series, because I don't have the time to get sucked in, but with the video iPod, I have more opportunities to catch up, and the Office episodes are short.

I watched a little of Battlestar Galactica, but so far I would say it's not bad, but neither am I very impressed.

My musical listening lately has revolved around several disparate CDs: The score to Vertigo - very Wagnerian when heard in isolation from the film, Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles, King Crimson's Thrak, which I haven't had out in quite a while, the Revolutionary Ensemble, and of course lots of Rahsaan Roland Kirk as usual. Just about everything by RRK is both technically astonishing and very soulfully played - demolishing the false dichotomy between "feel" players and technical players.

The kids are listening to lots of Laurie Berkner, Dan Zanes, TMBG and Burl Ives. She Who Must Be Obeyed in particular likes "LMNO" and "We are the Dinosaurs."

I'd like a little cross-platform app that grabs what you are currently listening to in iTunes and blats it into your /. signature: For example: NP: John Zorn, "Part 2" from "The Stone."

I'd pay $20, and $10 if it only worked on Mac or Windows.

(Of course, at home it would frequently read, NP: VA, ,P.U., from The Backyardigans. At least untilthe kids get their own computer. (I count my blessings - they don't much care for the Wiggles).)

Ok, I'm being a bit of a schoolboy here, but can you imagine a better application of Flash? I, for one, can not. Anyway, Mrs. Cujo is an active runner, so this is a gift idea...

Hmmmm. I'm not. Political ideologues and religous zealots are both deeply averse to hearing that things are more complicated than their dogma allows for. It's therefore no surprise that they sometime make bedfellows.

h/t to Butterflies and Wheels.