Tues. 08.14.18 – The great thing about the early evening sky this summer is that four of the five visible planets have been strung out like little jewels across the southeastern to western night sky: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus. Here is a photo of Mars rising next to the Newland power plant.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D850 and a Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens.
Tues. 08.14.18 – While the true August new moon was on Saturday the 11th, this evening was the visible separating conjunction of Venus and the three day old moon. It was lovely.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen from the roof of her RV with her Nikon D850 and a Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens.
This:
“I divide every disagreement into two classes,” Bob Taylor was telling me. “Class One is when two people disagree and neither can explain to the other person’s satisfaction that other person’s point of view. A Class Two disagreement is when each can explain to the other’s satisfaction the other’s point of view.”
He paused. “Class One is destructive. Most wars and pain and suffering in the world are based on Class One disagreements. Class Two disagreements enable people to work together even when they disagree.”
The key to his management style, he said, was to avoid Class One disagreements, and when he encountered them, to turn them into Class Two.” – How Bob Taylor assembled the team that invented personal computing: an appreciation, by Michael Hiltzik in the LA Times
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All the Other Tidbits:
‘Muskrat’, ‘Helpmate’, and 6 More Folk Etymologies: Because language isn’t logical
Next to a great bowl of Finnish Fish Soup, Rhode Island Clam Chowder is now my very favorite soup. Ok, a great miso should be on the list duking it out for number one, too.
Where did your dog come from? New tree of breeds may hold the answer via metafilter and a link to the chart, click to make bigger. Study full-text.
Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets
Starry Success: Protecting the Night Sky Above La Palma
How to Remove Light Pollution from Your Astro Images
“By not having any one idea jump too far from reality, Walkaway demonstrates how close we are, right now, to enormous promise and imminent peril. It can make the book read more like a manifesto than a novel in parts, but good sci-fi is always a bit uncomfortable, and it’s easier to swallow when packaged as this small-idea, understated approach. Utopia and dystopia are not mutually exclusive, as anyone sitting in 2017 watching for signs of nuclear war on their pocket supercomputer can relate to. The good news is that small ideas are easier to implement than big ones, so maybe, with their help, we can turn down the dystopia slider. Perhaps this is how utopia starts: not with a bang, but with a whimper.” – Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway and the Power of Small Ideas, by P.T. Phronk in Tor.com
