Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal dead at 96

via CNN

From CNN:

Step back in time with the Sage of Emporia
Wednesday, September 7, 2005; Posted: 4:52 p.m. EDT (20:52 GMT)
EMPORIA, Kansas (AP) — William Allen White’s house was more than just a place for his family to eat and sleep…..(via CNN)

‘Gonzo’ journalist’s ashes to be shot from cannon (via CNN).

The funeral for writer Hunter S. Thompson takes place tonight at his home near Aspen, CO. Johnny Depp, who did an excellent job of portraying Thompson in the 1998 movie based on “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, funded much of the cost of the extravaganza (or maybe I should say extravagonzo).

Today, Frank Miller’s “Sin City” came out on DVD. I got it for Hal for his birthday. Our favorite character is Marv played by Mickey Rourke. He’s got so many good lines.

Today is my husband Hal‘s birthday. Happy birthday honey!

Galactic survey reveals a new look for the Milky Way

MADISON: With the help of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy. …

From SpaceRef

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Friday, August 12, 2005
Source: NASA HQ

NASA’s Multipurpose Mars Mission Successfully Launched

A seven-month flight to Mars began this morning for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It will inspect the red planet in fine detail and assist future landers.

An Atlas V launch vehicle, 19 stories tall with the two-ton spacecraft on top, roared away from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:43 a.m. EDT. Its powerful first stage consumed about 200 tons of fuel and oxygen in just over four minutes, then dropped away to let the upper stage finish the job of putting the spacecraft on a path toward Mars. This was the first launch of an interplanetary mission on an Atlas V.

via marstoday.com

Giant waterfall discovered in California national park

Friday, August 12, 2005; Posted: 9:06 a.m. EDT (13:06 GMT)
California
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
WHISKEYTOWN, California (AP) — Dick McDermott knows these parts as
well as any man can.

“The 92-year-old used to earn a meager living mining the creeks that meander through the deeply wooded hills. He has slogged through the brush and hiked overgrown logging roads, hunting deer and gathering wood for his homemade fiddles.

But McDermott says he’s never laid eyes on the nearly 400-foot waterfall that park officials recently discovered in a remote corner of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 43,000 acres of wilderness in northern California….”

from CNN.

MRO postponed again due to software glitch.

NASA has postponed the launch of the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter).

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will be launched tomorrow!

The Discovery and her crew are home!

I just got back from NASA Planetary Science Summer School at JPL. It was an amazing, life-changing experience. I will never be the same again. I’ll post some photos and more information later in the week.

The following is an e-mail I received today from a volcano listserv. My thoughts and prayers go out to their friends and family.

****************************************************************************
PHIVOLCS Scientists and PHIVOLCS former director died in a helicopter crash
****************************************************************************
From: Raymond Patrick R. Maximo
Message sent on 04/28/05 at 1:47am US Pacific Standard Time

28 April 2005

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has
received official reports that the PHIVOLCS contingent aboard the helicopter
that crashed all have died. The PHIVOLCS contingent includes:

        Name                    Position                   Age
1.      Dr. Jessie A. Daligdig  Associate Scientist, DOST  44 years old
2.      Dr. Norman M. Tungol    Chief SRS, GGRDD           40 years old
3.      Mr. Dindo V. Javier     SR Analyst,                41 years old
4.      Mr. Orlando S. Abengoza SR Assistant               49 years old

This contingent was together with former PHIVOLCS Director Raymundo S.
Punongbayan, governor of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) and local
coordinator of Earthquake and Megacities Initiative (EMI), as part of an
investigation team for the assessment of natural hazards in Dingalan, Aurora
and Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija for the identification of possible safe sites for
the resettlement /rehabilitation of communities affected by the 2004
typhoons.

The institute is one with the grief and sorrow of their respective family
members and mourns this great loss to the Philippine scientific community.

PHIVOLCS-DOST

via blivet 2.0

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Park Service Sticks With Biblical Explanation For Grand Canyon
Promised Legal Review on Creationist Book Is Shelved
By: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Published: Oct 14, 2004

“The Bush Administration has decided that it will stand by its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Despite telling members of Congress and the public that the legality and appropriateness of the National Park Service offering a creationist book for sale at Grand Canyon museums and bookstores was “under review at the national level by several offices,” no such review took place, according to materials obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act….”

I’m having a hard time with this issue.

I am a firm believer in free speech and the unrestricted exchange of ideas and availability of information. However, as a geologist, I believe that the National Parks should be a place where the public recieves scientific information. It really isn’t even a separation of church and state issue to me. I just don’t think the role of the National Parks is to provide a religous education to the public.

But then again, if the books are selling and helping to bring money into the park system, who am I to argue.

I’m just not quite sure what to think about this.

According to Archbishop Usher, God created the Earth on October 23, 4004 B.C. at 9 am. Happy 6000th birthday Earth!

I just got back from Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising tour at the Thomas & Mack on the UNLV campus. I only stayed for about and hour. The event started at 9 pm, 1 hour past Ian’s bed time. Around 10, he started getting really tired and fussy, so we came home. I wish I could have stayed for the whole thing, but I had fun for the time I was there. I was nice to be surrounded by so many like-minded people.

…is better than a good day doing anything else (well actually spending time with my son is the best thing ever).

But I had a really good day in the field today.

Some professors in the department took us on a field trip to the northern Colorado River extensional corridor. I just had lots of fun and learned a lot. Plus, it was the first day I wore these awesome ASOLO shoes I got from Title 9.