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April 2008 Archives
18 years ago today, in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit on the Space Shuttle Discovery.
the most sophisticated optical observatory ever placed into orbit around the Earth… After the U.S. Congress had authorized its construction in 1977, the Hubble Space Telescope was built under the supervision of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States and was named after Edwin Hubble, the foremost American astronomer of the 20th century. The HST was placed into orbit about 600 km (370 miles) above the Earth by the crew of the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990.
Of course, it then nearly immediately needed corrective surgery:
About one month after launch, it became apparent that the HST’s large primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape owing to faulty testing procedures by the mirror’s manufacturer.
(Via The Encyclopedia Britannica’s new free-to-bloggers-and-their-readers program, Image courtesy of HubbleSite)
A list of upcoming movies I want to see this summer:
- IronMan, May 2
- Speed Racer, May 9
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, May 16
- Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, May 22
- KungFu Panda, June 6
- wall•e, June 27
- Wanted, June 27
- Hancock, July 2
B/c Twitter is frowned on at work, I don’t visit and did not know until last night that there was an ongoing outage in progress. Dave has one plan for a route-around, I’ve got another:
It’s been discussed extensively elsewhere, but I’ll repeat it here: I think what might do the trick is to start federating Twitter using XMPP. Twitter uses XMPP internally, and some very interesting federating work was done in the halls at Social Graph Foo Camp between Blaine Cook (Twitter) and Ralph Meijer (Mediamatic). A network of XMPP servers, implementing PubSub (and possibly PEP should be able to subscribe to the message stream from Twitter and vice-versa. Then when Twitter is up, Twitter users can follow me and see my updates, and I can follow them and see their updates. When Twitter is down, anyone on my service or on a peer service will still see my updates.
The competition comes in the form of add-on services/features: Twitter has SMS integration, Dave would probably offer RSS integration (RSS-to-XMPP for example), etc.
So, knowing how long this has been discussed, what’s the holdup?
R.E.M. is sounding like a band again, instead of Whiny Michael and the Stipes.
I bought R.E.M.’s new album last week, and I’ve been listening to it on and off since then, and I’m starting to develop some thoughts. For better or for worse, I tend to examine each new R.E.M. album in the light of how does this album build on / relate to what has gone before, and how does it explore new territory? I’m happy to say that for me, Accelerate does both with vigor.
Living Well Is the Best Revenge (3:12)
Out of the door loud, fast. Sets the tone for the album. Companion tune to New Test Leper from New Adventures In HiFi, barking back at a media that, in the end, doesn’t really matter. Bonus points for the return of Mike Mills to background vocals (or at elast to appropriate volumes), and for Mike and Peter for a return to Document-quality rock-n-roll. R.E.M. is sounding like a band again, instead of Whiny Michael and the Stipes. - 4 Stars
Man-Sized Wreath (2:32)
I can’t quite get a grip on Man-Sized Wreath. Not sure if it’s the lyrics or the tune, but while I can already sing along to most of the lyrics (it’s catchy!) I can’t tell you why. Yet. 2 Stars
Supernatural Superserious (3:24)
First single, very hooky. Really fun to listen to. Companion tune to Nightswimming from Automatic For The People. Michael sings to the lamenting youth from Nightswimming, assuring that it doesn’t last. - 4 Stars
Hollow Man (2:39)
I love Hollow Man. Following tender mostly-acoustic verses, the chorus winds up and rings out like a 70’s sitcom theme (in a good way) then comes to a satisfyingly noisy spinout at the end. Some excellent Murmurs-era guitar work from Peter Buck (still looking for the specific song I’m thinking of). - 4 Stars
Houston (2:05)
Lovely, dirty organ that sounds like it was resurrected from a swamp, or from a flooded church (a true New Orleans Instrumental?). Also, includes an echo of the acoustic riff from Try Not To Breathe. - 3 Stars
Accelerate (3:34)
Michael’s invoking cartoons (“where’s the cartoon escape hatch for me”), which had me thinking of the Dr. Seuss references in The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, but it comes amid a fast, full-of-fuzz song that conveys the fear, urgency, and tension in the lyric. - 3 Stars
Until the Day Is Done (4:09)
This is another one that’s growing on me. Followup to Ignoreland from Automatic For The People and would fit nicely on that album right after it. Another politically-flavored song, but is lamenting after the angry protest of Ignoreland. - 3 Stars
Mr. Richards (3:46)
Mr. Richards is a slow, loping, admonishment (beat-down? ) of the title character (who at one point I thought was referring to Michael Richards, of Sienfeld fame, but now I’m not so sure). - 3 Stars
Sing for the Submarine (4:51)
A weird song that is really growing on me, and (IMO) references several 3 R.E.M. songs from the past:
- Electron Blue, from Around The Sun by name
- In a stretch, a reference to the Machine from Green’s World Leader Pretend
- Fables of the Reconstruction’s Feeling Gravity’s Pull
- High Speed Train from Around The Sun
- 3 Stars
Horse to Water (2:18)
You’re only as big as your battles
- 2 Stars
I’m Gonna DJ (2:08)
Somehow reminds me of 1995’s Revolution but without the cool “La La La”s. I suspect it might take the place of The End Of The World As We Know It as a show-closer, but I hope not. - 3 Stars
This past week, Scripting News celebrated its 11th birthday - congratulations, Dave! Dave writes about the software he used then to manage the site, Frontier’s NewsPage suite.
NewsPage also powered the very first version of this site, back in late 1998 (here’s a sample from Dec 1999, which is all archive.org had, but the look is the same).
