This article details a new finding of an object just outside the solar system. It has a very odd orbit. Read the article for details.
Also, the object is named Buffy, after the vampire slayer of the same name. Yeah, I know.
Personally, I think it’s the Alien Observation Craft, sent by a sentient race to keep an eye on us and make sure we don’t leave the solar system. Kind of a cosmic trip wire. Or maybe it’s just a chunk of rock that got lost. It remains to be seen.
Technorati Tags: science
I know I have some mac-users on my reading list. If you use a mac with a G4 processor (and you probably do) you should go here and download a special build of Firefox that’s optimized for your processor. I was skeptical, but it seems a lot zippier for me after using it all day.
Here are the articles that I added to my Cite-U-Like Queue this week. They generally pertain to myocardial ischemia and infarction, but there are some others mixed in as well.
Technorati Tags: cardiac electrophysiology, engineering, grad school, biomedical engineering, science
Many months ago I read the Live Simple ebook. It drives me nuts that it’s not called “Live Simply,” but whatever. It advocates a pretty strict minimalism.
For the past few years, I’ve wanted to go back to basics, to get rid of all of the stuff I don’t need. It’s a big task, and I usually have more pressing issues to attend to, but it’s important because it affects my everyday life in many ways.
At the end of August, I got a big push of assistance. Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of my stuff. It’s sad, yes, and costly, but at the same time, it has given me license to start nearly anew. I still have some stuff in storage at my parents’ house that warrants sorting and expunging, but that stuff’s not in my apartment normally anyhow.
It’s possible to live well with relatively little ‘stuff’. Some might say that it’s impossible to live well with a lot. Here in my apartment in St.Louis, we’ve been living with a minimum of stuff. In the kitchen, perhaps the place I tend to clutter most, we have just enough pots, pans, and cooking utensils to get by. In my bedroom, I now have a bed, two TV tables for modular desk purposes, an OfficeJet multifunction printer, my suitcase, my backpack, a filing box, an iron, and my (minimal) clothes. And that’s basically enough.
It’s going to be harder to maintain this spartan aspect going forward. Here, I’m constantly haunted by the prospect of having too much stuff to drive back to New Orleans. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to bring the nice, queen size bed that was donated to me, as it’s pretty large and U-Haul trailers are expensive. Once I’m living in a more permanent situation, I’ll have to fight the reptilian hoarding instinct lest I squander this bittersweet opportunity to start over.
Technorati Tags: hurricane, hurricane Katrina, Katrina, organization, st.louis
I dished out some leftover thai peanut tofu for myself. Then I thought, wow, that’s a lot of leftovers.
I am so, SO full. Ow.
At least it was tasty. Today was exhausting, but very academically interesting. There are days when I just grind at boring details, days when I’ve had to deal with annoying students as a TA, and days when I just can’t concentrate for people bugging me all of the time.
And then, there are days where I find out just how much really cool stuff is going on in the field, and in scientific research in general. Heavy though my eyelids may be, today was one of those days. I feel like I’m getting close to some kind of critical mass.
hah. Classes will probably set me back two semesters on getting there. But at least I know it’s out there.
Off to Bedfordshire.
ADDENDUM: I did not sleep well on a full stomach… uuughhh.
Technorati Tags: class, engineering, grad school, productivity, science, stress