Total Lunar Eclipse May 15

There's going to be a total lunar eclipse on May 15. Want more info about when to look? Check out the lunar eclipse computer. Our data:

                                                      Moon's
                                                Azimuth   Altitude
                                     h  m            o        o
Moonrise               2003 May 15  20:10         114.1     ----
Moon enters totality   2003 May 15  20:13.7       114.6      0.3
Middle of eclipse      2003 May 15  20:40.1       118.8      4.3
Moon leaves totality   2003 May 15  21:06.4       123.1      8.4
Moon leaves umbra      2003 May 15  22:17.4       136.1     18.5
Moon leaves penumbra   2003 May 15  23:14.8       148.4     24.9
Moonset                2003 May 16  06:21         243.2     ----

Economically speaking

From this week's The New Republic: Bush rides on Navy jet from 125 mph to a screeching halt: "Just like the economy!"

GOP fundraiser was a spy

Here's a story that isn't getting the press that it deserves: A prominent GOP fundraiser, who was also a paid FBI informant to the tune of $2 million, has been indicted for espionage. She was a Chinese double agent, apparently. I'm thinking that after all of the bogus foreign campaign scandal accusations against Clinton and Gore, that it's the Republican's turn in the barrel. But I suspect that our lapdog "liberal media" will be eerily silent on this one. The Senate Judiciary chairman has already decided that his committee is just "too busy" to bother opening an investigation.

Nobel Peace Prize candidates

Today's news: Blair and Bush nominated for Nobel Peace prize. I think I'm going to stick to reading The Onion, where the news makes just a little more sense.

CoreComputers

As previously mentioned, I've spoken and written before about building Mac clones. So I should have heard of this company before, but for some reason I just came across CoreComputers today. After doing a quick run through their site, I have to say that it smells like a waste of money to me. For example, The CoreCrib Kit starts at $380, for a machine that's basically a a subset of what you'd get by buying an old clone on eBay for about $50 + a FireWire/USB card (another $50). They don't say where they're getting the motherboards, nor do they say what their machine's bus speed is. All in all, you're paying a premium for the (fairly nice, for what it is) case and the 90 days of support.

For those geeky enough to want to mess with hardware, why pay a premium? And if you're not geeky enough, these ain't the machines for you.

Tolkien Crackpot Theories

Sometimes, I just love the web: Tolkien Crackpot Theories.

As a result of hanging around the newsgroup rec.arts.books.tolkien entirely too much, we seem to have collected a small yet unusual collection of absurdist Tolkien theories - ludicrous speculations about both Middle-earth and its inhabitants. A number of these curiousities are presented here for your edification.

What Dori is reading

I read stories from all sides, hoping to get a rounded view of events and people. Here's a few pieces I've read recently, all from sources I normally think of as foul:

• Christian Right Talks of Bolting GOP in 2004

  "Nobody who cares about these issues is going to go the Democrat party — this is a question of enthusiasm versus inactivity. Enthusiasm is going to wane if there's not solid support for the fundamental principles that this nation was founded on."

• No Guardrails?

  It's preposterous to argue on the one hand that two adults engaging in nontraditional sex behind a closed door will lead to a breakdown in heterosexual marriages across the country, but that America's foremost spokesperson for virtue and morality spending millions at casinos across the country bears no influence on the 5.5 million people his own organization has identified as "problem gamblers."

• Where are they, Mr. President?

  Last fall, Congress abdicated, surrendered its war-making power to a president who demanded that Congress yield it up. If Congress wishes to redeem itself, it should unearth the truth about why we went to war. Was the official explanation the truth, or was it political cover for an American imperial war?

Hold your nose, but they're all worth reading.

10.2.6

The Mac OS X 10.2.6 Update is out.

May 6th

What we were doing on May 6, 2001.

What we're doing on May 6, 2003.