Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Do you deserve your high school diploma?

Here’s my score:

Not bad for someone who went to government schools.

For those who are interested, the song played by the Chinese POWs in the last episode of M*A*S*H is “Quintet for clarinet and strings in A, K 581: I. Allegro” by Mozart.

This is another one of those happy things I’ve added because the information I found in a Google search wasn’t satisfactory.

Here’s a conversation I just had. Keep in mind that Josh is semi computer literate, but not a techie. I would describe him as a “typical user”.

Josh: How does this new thing, Time whatever [Time Machine] work?

Me: It makes a copy of files you delete so you can get them back.

Josh: Where does it write the copy to?

Me: Another drive.

Josh: What other drive? I have a notebook.

Me: One you plug in.

Josh: I delete a lot of files to make room on drives. Why do I want to use more drive space with the files I’ve deleted?

Me: <pausing to formulate a good answer>

Josh: Never mind. I’m going to bed.

In just a few sentences, major shortcomings in the usefulness of Time Machine was pointed out by a “typical user”, and he succeeded to make the issue of automated backups slightly more complex than the presumption of backup and restore. Just wait until users who are more clueless start to wrap their minds around Time Machine. Oh boy.

From this article at Fox News:

Health officials in New York City are stepping up to the plate to remove trans fats from the menus at local restaurants.

The Board of Health will hold its first public hearing today on a proposal to make New York the first U.S. city to ban restaurants from serving food containing artificial trans fats …

If approved, New York’s ban would only affect restaurants, not grocery stores, and wouldn’t extend beyond the city limits.

But experts said the city’s food service industry, with 24,600 establishments, is so large that any rule change is likely to ripple nationwide.

You gave government the power to tell you where you can smoke. Now they’re going to tell you what you can eat. Give government an inch, and it takes a mile. Those of you on the Centerville city council, those of you who are members of anti-smoking groups, and those of you in Ohio thinking of voting in favor of either issue 4 or 5, are paving the way for increased government micromanagement of your day-to-day life, the culmination of the liberal nanny state. You’re taking power out of the hands of individuals and the free market and placing it in the hands of lawyers, bureaucrats, and the self-proclaimed elite.

I take special delight in pointing this out because several people I’ve spoken with have scoffed at me when I predicted that government would soon expand its tentacles into the “safe food” business, based on the mandate people like the anti-smoking crowd have given them. I ask you to think very, very hard when considering issues 4 and 5 in Ohio, and the power it would give people you wouldn’t voluntarily associate with to decide what’s best for your body, the most important and intimate thing you own.

I just wanted to note that my friend Tim Miller and I saw Comet SWAN last night at Spring Valley Nature Reserve right after sunset in the location shown in this chart. It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but it was a decent binocular object. Our 10″ Newtonian Dob gave a better view of the nucleus, which was very bright in the center with a haze around it, but no noticeable tail. The tail also was not apparent in binoculars either. The sky wasn’t as dark as it should have been if we expected to see a tail because cities, and hence, light pollution, from the northeast and northwest are growing. I’m glad we got our chance to see it because the next several nights are supposed to be rainy and the comet is expected to dim by the time that’s over. If you have access to a dark sky tonight or tomorrow night and you can follow the chart, I recommend seeing the comet.

All this reminds me, Comet Hale-Bopp was almost 10 years ago - spring of 1997. Wow! That’s hard to believe. I still have pictures I took of that comet, which were not bad for a first effort. I gave a bunch away at the time and they were very popular. I was surprised at how many people wanted to give photos of the comet to others as a gift, and even though I didn’t charge for the pictures, I broke even because some people insisted that they pay me. An astronomical rule of thumb is that a good naked eye comet comes along every decade or so, and it seems like we’re due. Hopefully when the next comet comes around, I’ll have the experience and equipment to get some really good pictures.