Comet Holmes: Update

The amazing outbursting comet (17P/Holmes) is still up there... and we still haven't seen it for ourselves. It has apparently gotten slightly fainter in the last week or so, but it's still almost as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper. The coma has gotten so large that it's very obvious to the naked eye (or so I hear!). Apparently, the physical diameter is actually larger than the planet Jupiter at this point. The outer coma glows green, due to fluorescence from the gases C2 (molecular carbon) and CN (cyanide). This is cool because it means the comet is glowing on its own (not just reflecting sunlight), but this can't be seen with the eye (only in pictures). What's also weird about this comet is that it still doesn't have a tail, despite this big cloud of gas and dust that forms the coma. The solar wind should be pushing that dust out into a tail... but as far as I can tell, that tail should be hidden behind the comet, from our perspective.

Halloween Adventures- Part One

Maia in the pumpkin patch (yes, that is snow behind her)

Maia isn't too sure about the scarecrow, who was a real guy

Sitting in the hay with pumpkins, but not taking her eyes off the scarecrows!

Yum! First scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins

Daddy's chocolate ice cream is the best!

On Saturday, we went to a Halloween party at our local park, Russian Jack Springs. There were games, face painting, and a haunted trail hike for older folks. For the little ones, there was a little pumpkin patch, complete with real scarecrows that played games and handed out candy. We finished up the afternoon with a trip to Baskin Robbins, where Maia got a little scoop of Peach ice cream (and some of daddy's chocolate too).

The World Without Us

I haven't read this book yet (The World Without Us), but it sounds really interesting. The author has done the usual tour of talk shows, which means I've seen him on the Daily Show as well as heard him on the Scientific American podcast Science Talk. It was on the latter that I heard an interesting tidbit. Do you know why there are no longer any large land mammals around most of the world, but there are still many in Africa? See the comments for the answer.

These images are from the book's webpage (above). This next one I find the most interesting: Within two days, subways flood. I'm amazed at how reliant we are upon our fellow human beings to hold back the forces of nature on a day-to-day basis... in this case, the pumps that hold out the water:



And I'm not sure that this one has so much to do with the absence of humans... could we hold back a glacial ice sheet during the next ice age? But it does still make you think about how temporary are the products of our civilization, on geologic timescales:



What I find most interesting about this book is that it gives its readers a glimmer of hope, even though it starts with the elimination of the human race. Apparently, it's nice to hear how quickly Mother Nature will bounce back, despite the beating she takes from us daily.

Comet Brightens a Million-fold in 48 Hours!

Over the past 48 hours, Comet 17P/Holmes has brightened from 17th magnitude (you'd need a good telescope) to 2nd! Not only is that visible with the naked eye (even in a city!), if it were a star it would make the "100 Brightest" list. Even seasoned observers are calling this the most amazing comet they've ever seen.

Nobody knows exactly why it's brightened so much, although a couple of ideas have been thrown around: Did it get smacked by an asteroid? Did the nucleus split in two? Was there a big cavern below the surface (that used to be full of ice, which evaporated and produced the comet's tail in the past) which collapsed? So far, various folks have various reasons to discount all of these explanations. In particular, the "smacked by an asteroid" explanation (baseball fans, see here) is unlikely, because this comet actually did something very similar when it was discovered in 1892, and at about the same point in its orbit.

If the similarities with 1892 are to be believed, the comet should stay bright for about 3 weeks, and probably develop a nice tail over that time. (It's gonna take time for the dust thrown up into the coma to stretch out behind the comet.) I hope that's the case, because from Anchorage we seem to get a clear night only every couple of weeks or so...

Get out and try to find this thing, and post comments if you find it! See below for finding charts. Tonight, I think your best bet is to look halfway between the Moon and the Big Dipper's bowl. It's also on a line between the Little Dipper and the Pleiades (7 Sisters). But you'll have to know what the constellation Perseus is supposed to look like, so you can tell where the "new star" is. I made the last two finder charts below myself with Starry Nigth. Both are for 8pm tonight (Oct 25th) from St Louis (where I figure most of our loyal readers live). In the last picture, I show you where the comet is heading over the next 3 weeks. (The format is "day-of-month:time".)

Happy Hunting!

Home Sweet Home

As promised, here are some pics of our new digs. All the boxes are unpacked and there is stuff on the walls. It feels like home!

I'm a Crime Novelist

A rather morbid book for me to have written when I was ten. For more of my novels, see here.

Indoor Softball

Maia and Becca came to cheer me on last week.

Yeah, you read that right: indoor softball. I managed to get onto one of the teams in the league run by Anchor Town Sports, having missed only one game. In reality, they're begging for playing at this point. One team (the "Bearded Clams") dropped out at the last minute, and they threw my team together at the last minute to maintain the schedule they'd put together. And in reality, we're not even a full team. Every week, we have to beg other people to play with us. It's often from the team that played before, but last week we had the first game of the night so we stole players from our opponents. And as far as I can tell, that wasn't a forfeit.

Who has a dome large enough for indoor softball? Why ChangePoint Church, of course! My favorite blurb from their website: Come early. Give yourself time to park, take children to their programs, grab a cup of Kaladi's coffee (it's free!), browse our bookstore, and find a seat. The church itself looks like a convention center (no steeple). They just recently built the SportsDome; apparently, Anchor Town played the first softball ever there, and it only opened a week before that. Eventually they will lay down a running track and pave the parking lot (hopefully), but right now they're just concrete and rock, respectively. It looks like the walls/ceiling are actually inflated, and they have to maintain a certain pressure inside the dome to keep it up. (The front doors are revolving, and the wheelchair entry is like an airlock!) It's big enough for two softball diamonds in there! But we have to play with a "softie" ball, which doesn't fly as far. But it's not Chicago-style 16-inch softball! I couldn't bring myself to play that, even if it was the only game in town.

Playing softball inside a dome is weird. First of all, everything between the foul lines is in-play, even if it bounces off the ceiling or the net. And there's no home-run line, so balls that are crushed so they hit high up on the outfield net are still in play... you have to camp yourself at the bottom of the net and try to snag it as it rolls down the net. You can still wear cleats b/c the floor is a soil-like pile of tiny rubber fragments, topped with some descendant of Easter-basket grass. However, that playing surface has been hell on my knees/ankles (or maybe the fact that it's been years since I've played or really even exercised is part of it, too). The "softie" balls are yellow, and the ceiling is white, so it can be hard to pick up the ball sometimes. Watching the ball fly against the backdrop of the dome is also off-putting; I've misjudged my fair share of balls b/c I can't tell where they are. And the first bounce off the floor can be a doozy.

It's also been a while since I played in a league with balls and strikes. For those of you who don't know the rules of the league I played in at Chicago (the self-proclaimed World's Dorkiest Softball League): there were no balls & strikes; if the pitcher was throwing you garbage, your captain could ask for a replacement pitcher. But, three foul balls and you were out. This was supposed to make the game more accessible and fun for folks who hadn't played before, but the games could also drag on forever. Not that I minded! Anyway, at the moment I have NO idea what my strike zone is, and my first time at the plate I stepped out of the batter's box during my swing and was called out (on a good hit, too). We also play time-limited games, restricted to 7 innings or 55 minutes, whichever comes first. And the time slots we have at the SportsDome are a killer: 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30pm! And it takes me about 30 minutes to drive to the dome, so if I've got the late game like I do tonight, I'm not home until after midnight.

So I'm still getting used to some weird aspects of the game, but I'm really enjoying getting to play. Unfortunately, there's no real "team spirit" (half the time, half of our players aren't even on our team), but that means that when we're losing I don't feel a lot of pressure to produce offensively. I'm just out there to have a good time. I've gotten to play outfield every game, so I get to make a lot of running catches, which is probably my favorite part of the game. And there's no bench-time, so it's go-go-go for an hour. We're halfway through a 6-week season (twice a week), and I'll be sad for it to end. But now I know about Anchor Town... I'm looking forward to more softball in the future.

Go Residential Mortgage! (Yes, we got a sponsorship; but no jerseys, sadly.)

Honey, have you seen my hand?

If you've heard of the Ig Nobel prizes, you may be interested in their website: Improbable Research. Both bring you news about research that "first makes you laugh, then makes you think." You can link to the list of this year's Ig Nobel awardees from the main page if you're interested, but I just thought I'd bring you two fun things from their front page this morning...

First, this creepy picture:

(although, I think their attempt to link it to an article about salvaging amputated digits is a stretch).

And, you may be interested in reading a scholarly article about “The Etiology(*) of Public Support for the Designated Hitter Rule”. Snippets:

• Democrats tend to favor the DH


• No correlation with proximity to AL or NL teams

I haven't read the article yet myself, but I would think that the team you grew up with would have a lot to do with which side you were on, even if you no longer live near there. Having grown up with the Cardinals, I have a hard time even believing that some of these AL teams play in the majors. The Devil Rays?? But I guess that has more to do with who-plays-who.

I know we have some loyal baseball fans reading this blog, any opinions on the DH rule, or what the article says about it? Admittedly, most of you are NL fans, so responses may be pretty one-sided.

* etiology:
1. the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition.
2. the investigation or attribution of the cause or reason for something, often expressed in terms of historical or mythical explanation.

Support for the DH rule is a disease? I think I like definition #1!

Happy Birthday Madeleine!

Happy 3rd birthday to our niece Madeleine! Hope you have a great day!

Please Stop Believing

I figure if we post this first, then we can take the wind out of the sails of our Cards-fan relatives. That is, before they find it and post it on their blogs.



Who are we supposed to be rooting for at this point? The D-backs went down almost as fast as the Cubbies did, so now the team that beat the team that beat us is representing the NL. As for the Red Sox, at least I had Varitek and Ortiz on my fantasy team this year, but I can't even hear Curt Schilling's name without remembering a different kind of "red sock." They just don't have that Loveable Loser vibe anymore. And everytime I think of the Indians, I have to convince myself that they're not from Indiana. No, much as I don't want to root for the team with the humidor, I have to root against the league with the DH. Someday I'll get myself an NL All-Star jersey, for times like these.

Oh, and Dane Cook isn't doing it for me. I need a Tommy Lasorda commercial to convince me to keep watching this year...



There, that's better. Go Rockies!

Happy Birthday Aunt Maggie

Happy Birthday Aunt Maggie! We hope you are enjoying your day!

Nick Nolte Hair

When Maia wakes up, she always has a massive case of bed-head. We call it "Nick Nolte hair" after this infamous mug shot.

She likes it when you scratch between her ears

Maia has picked up a peculiar habit of crawling around with toys in her mouth. Most of the time its very funny, but when she chooses one of her many rubber ducks, its a bit disturbing. She always carries them around by the head, looking a lot like a little bird dog.

Let it Snow!

Sunday morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. The snow stuck around until the late afternoon. Just a preview of what is to come!

Everyone up here strongly suggested that we get snow tires. We went this weekend (along with half of Anchorage, PFD checks in hand) and bought a set. Tomorrow, Andy will get to the first-come-first-served tire installation almost 2 hours before it opens to secure an appointment. He tried today, but by 10 minutes after opening, all slots for the day were filled. People started lining up 3 hours before the store opened!

Meanwhile, we have 4 tires kicking around our place. What better thing to do than to take pics of Maia. Enjoy!

Happy PFD Week!

Happy PFD week! PFD is the permanent fund dividend, aka "the oil money."

The Permanent Fund, which was established in 1976, was created because some Alaskans felt the state spent the first oil payoff in 1969 too quickly and too inefficiently. It was established to place some oil profits out of political control, thus ensuring the financial security of the state for generations to come. The Permanent Fund is run by a semi-private corporation who recruit the top notch fund managers from large financial firms in the lower 48. The PFD is the money that the oil money makes.

The PFD was first paid out in 1980 to share the wealth of the Fund. Every Alaskan resident who has lived in the state for at least 6 months of the year and is without a felony conviction is eligible. The catch is that the lag time is almost a year. For example, in January 2007, AK residents began applying for their 2006 PFD, which is paid out in October. The PFD amount this year was just over $1650.

Timing is not on our side. We will not be eligible to apply for the 2007 PFD, since we moved in Sept of 2007. We will have to wait until October 2009 to see our first PFD payout. But given oil prices lately (the PFD is based in part on 5 year oil revenue averages), it may be up over $2K by that time!

People around here count on this money, and retailers milk it for all its worth. For weeks we have seen car commercials, furniture ads, vacation specials, etc promoting PFD sales. People I have met say they are going to use it for bills, put it into college funds (everyone gets one, even the kiddos), buy a camping trailer, pay off credit cards...its like if everyone got their tax return on the same day.

Today I was in Old Navy and in front of me at the checkout was a family of 6. They looked they were experiencing a bit of hard times, but their cart was full of new clothes for everyone. The kids were jumping around and obviously excited. I couldn't help but notice that their total was over $800 and when signing the sales slip, the mom mentioned how well timed the PFD money always is, just in time for warm winter clothes.

Ok..so I sounded a bit like the cheesy oil company commercials we see all the time, with folks hiking and some voiceover about "building a better Alaska," but it is nice to see that in this state, where a lot of people are just barely making ends meet, once a year there is an opportunity for fun and new, warm winter clothes.


PS- the Permanent fund started with an intial investment of $734,000. It is now approx $40 billion!

What's your favorite planet?

This is our first time posting a youtube video to the blog. Go Cubbies!

Tiny Cubs Fan: A Retrospective

Go Cubs Go!
Today is opening day, all over again. The NL Central Division Champs play Arizona tonight for the first of a best of 5 series. I was going to dress Maia up in her Cubs gear and take a picture of her rooting on her team, but..
1. all of her Cubs clothes are too small. Cramming a girl who wears 18 month clothes into a 3-6 month sleeper doesn't work. Trust me.
2. The game is on way past her bedtime. We'll save the blown bedtimes for the World Series.

So, for your enjoyment, a retrospective of Maia through the ages, when her Cubs gear actually fit her.