Pretty picture

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an entire cluster of mini-comets, each with its own coma and tail; collectively, they are Fragment B of Comet P73/Schwassman-Wachmann 3.

Pretty picture

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an entire cluster of mini-comets, each with its own coma and tail; collectively, they are Fragment B of Comet P73/Schwassman-Wachmann 3.

Still congested

Hypothesis: this may be allergies rather than a cold.

So I've taken an allergy pill (Benadryl, that being what we have a few of in the house from when I swelled up after julian_tiger scratched me a while ago), and am going to see what, if any, difference that makes.

If my knee hadn't been bothering me seriously last night, I'd be heading to the gym anyway; I may do so regardless, after lunch.

Still congested

Hypothesis: this may be allergies rather than a cold.

So I've taken an allergy pill (Benadryl, that being what we have a few of in the house from when I swelled up after julian_tiger scratched me a while ago), and am going to see what, if any, difference that makes.

If my knee hadn't been bothering me seriously last night, I'd be heading to the gym anyway; I may do so regardless, after lunch.

Jardin Botanique butterflies

papersky kindly sent me a link to a gallery of butterfly photos from the Jardin Botanique "Butterflies are Free/Papillons en Liberté" exhibit. There are some really good images of morphos showing their wing spots against the roof, and emerging from their cocoons. A flowering cactus from above is beautiful, and would make a fine textbook illustration of the Fibonacci sequence. Here's a morpho from above, iridescent blue.

Jardin Botanique butterflies

papersky kindly sent me a link to a gallery of butterfly photos from the Jardin Botanique "Butterflies are Free/Papillons en Liberté" exhibit. There are some really good images of morphos showing their wing spots against the roof, and emerging from their cocoons. A flowering cactus from above is beautiful, and would make a fine textbook illustration of the Fibonacci sequence. Here's a morpho from above, iridescent blue.

The problem is characterization

In response to a thread on alt.poly, I sketched a quick horror-movie plot. And now I've got people saying I ought to write it as a short story.

To do that, I'd need something resembling plausible characterization. Given that all I know going in is that at least one of these people thinks it would be "cool" to have sex in a stone circle or passage grave, and is sure that if they ask whatever spirits may reside there for permission, they can trust the answers they get, making them even two-dimensional might be difficult.

What I have at the moment is two youngish idiots, one male and one female; one or more "resident beings"; and (in the movie-plot sketch) an older man who lives nearby and does the "I told you so" routine. I think the ominous music can go.

elisem, what exactly was the Breton phrasing about nobody knowing why the monuments were built?

( more details, including the Usenet post )

The problem is characterization

In response to a thread on alt.poly, I sketched a quick horror-movie plot. And now I've got people saying I ought to write it as a short story.

To do that, I'd need something resembling plausible characterization. Given that all I know going in is that at least one of these people thinks it would be "cool" to have sex in a stone circle or passage grave, and is sure that if they ask whatever spirits may reside there for permission, they can trust the answers they get, making them even two-dimensional might be difficult.

What I have at the moment is two youngish idiots, one male and one female; one or more "resident beings"; and (in the movie-plot sketch) an older man who lives nearby and does the "I told you so" routine. I think the ominous music can go.

elisem, what exactly was the Breton phrasing about nobody knowing why the monuments were built?

( more details, including the Usenet post )