An excellent question.

Spectacular! Red Sprite Lightning with Green Aurora Background: Pic, info: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130522.html

Reason #8465 why you should check that your tattoo artist uses a grammar/spellchecker: http://tinyurl.com/qewb9nd

Lots more: http://tinyurl.com/pll2gjo

Safe Rooms that can withstand an F5 can net-cost as little as $500: http://tinyurl.com/pq346hf

A safe room, built to FEMA specs and designed to withstand 250MPH winds,
will cost only around $2,500; and FEMA (and/or other programs) may pick
up the first $2,000 or so.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2013/05/oklahoma_tornado_storm_shelters_where_is_the_safest_place_in_a_tornado.html

http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1536

What an F5 does (Oklahoma GIF): http://twitpic.com/cs8yn1

25 words that haven't changed since before the Ice Age: http://tinyurl.com/d63kwxl

25 "ultraconserved" words that have persisted across languages and millennia, almost unchanged:

"Thou, I, not, that, we, to give, who, this, what, man/male, ye, old, mother, to hear, hand, fire ,to pull, black, to flow, bark, ashes, to spit, worm."

Story, audio clips, more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/words-that-last/

What is going on up there? (Heavy metal bands per 100,000 population: http://tinyurl.com/79t82mp )

Tip o' the hate to: http://nowiknow.com/

Yes, it's a little silly, but I'm sending sent my name and message to Mars... http://tinyurl.com/cntzgvu

Send your name a message or a poem to Mars this fall. http://tinyurl.com/cntzgvu

NASA Invites Public to Send Names And Messages to Mars: NASA is inviting
members of the public to submit their names and a personal message
online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the
Martian upper atmosphere....

Press release: http://tinyurl.com/cntzgvu

Entry form: http://tinyurl.com/d2yq65a

Mission site: http://tinyurl.com/cfzbfxo

Canadian stairwell captured on camera! http://tinyurl.com/ctq3n9p

@TheOnion: Dick Cheney Vice Presidential Library Opens In Pitch-Dark, Sulfurous Underground Cave. http://onion.com/ZWtz6b

http://onion.com/ZWtz6b

Individual atoms, near absolute zero temperature, manipulated to make world's smallest stop-action movie: http://tinyurl.com/bwc8znn

"The star of this movie was ready for its close-up—so ready it was magnified 100 million times. A Boy And His Atom is officially the world's smallest film, created by IBM by manipulating thousands of carbon monoxide molecules into an animated stop-motion short, reports the Telegraph. The film, which features a boy playing with an atom, was shot under a two-ton scanning tunneling microscope at -450 degrees, using an extremely sharp needle to manually move each atom one by one for 250 frames..."

http://tinyurl.com/bwc8znn

Humble beginnings: The world’s first-ever public web page, posted 20 years ago: http://tinyurl.com/24ss9y8

20 years, but it seems a lot longer, considering how far the Web has come.

http://tinyurl.com/24ss9y8

The view from SpaceShipTwo's tail cam as SS2 broke the speed of sound for 1st time today. http://tinyurl.com/bmlljzv

http://tinyurl.com/bmlljzv

SpaceShipTwo lights up its rocket for first time and goes supersonic http://tinyurl.com/cglheyu

http://tinyurl.com/cglheyu

NASA Probe Gets Close-Up Views of Large Hurricane on Saturn http://tinyurl.com/czxcp57

"The world's most innovative personality test" http://www.visualdna.com/ It says I'm a "seeker." Hmmm.

http://www.visualdna.com/

What Happens When Siri And Google Voice Talk To Each Other? http://t.co/vovZ1qOb3Y

http://t.co/vovZ1qOb3Y

Chernobyl 27 years after: (pix) http://tinyurl.com/cbapfoe

http://tinyurl.com/cbapfoe

#BostonMarathon Aftermath: Pix from 11 days after the blasts --- http://tinyurl.com/c7oqron

BostonMarathon Aftermath

I finally completed the task I set out to to on the day of the Marathon --- to do some banking at a branch that happens to be almost precisely at the marathon's finish line.

Boylston Street was closed for a week. (See http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-morning-after.html ) It reopened for residents and business owners a few days ago, and is now almost fully open.

This is the site of the first blast. On the surface, it looks almost normal, except for the extra cops still stationed there.



Look a little closer and you can see that the worst damage still is unrepaired.



This is the site of the second blast; the one I was across the street from. (See the series of photos: http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2013/04/bostonmarathon-pix-series-seconds-after.html )



Note the newly-planted tree. The original tree was damaged in the blast from the backpack bomb placed right next to it. You can see the still-smoking remains of the backpack next to the tree in this photo I took last week:



There's some fresh plywood at that blast site, too.



But life is almost back to normal for those not directly injured by the bombs. And today, the sun was out, the flowers were blooming and the birds were singing. Life goes on.

'Hear My Voice, Alexander Graham Bell': Smithsonian Discovers, Plays 128-Year-Old Recording http://tinyurl.com/c7yld9g

http://tinyurl.com/c7yld9g

It's a Texas freedom thing. http://tinyurl.com/bpa8h26

What a freaking assh*le.

Boston, morning after

I walked down Boylston this morning trying to get to my bank, which is right at the Marathon finish line. Nope. The streets there are still a crime scene, and closed off.

There were TV trucks from NY and Phadelphia and many other places; reporters setting up for noon on-scene livebroadcasts.

The next shot looks down Boylston, towards the finish line. If you look closely, you can see small piles of swept-up debris in various places on the street. All the debris --- much of it ordinary trash --- was gathered into small piles, and circled with orange fluorescent paint on the pavement. I assume it was or is all going to be painstakingly analyzed, bit by bit.

There's still a heavy police presence, augmented by military police (in Humvees) and federal agencies, like this ATF truck.

So, things aren't fully back to normal here. Not yet, anyway.

Happy night here in Boston. (More pix: http://tinyurl.com/c3j5rmn )

Right now, on the streets of Boston

This is at the intersection of Boylston and Brookline; hundreds of happy college kids chanting USA USA (which is a little silly, as the bombing suspects were citizens) and BPD BPD (for Boston Police department; which makes more sense.)

The kids ended up blocking the road, so the cops did come for crowd control, but were greeted with high fives and handshakes.

Happy night here in Boston. :)

Boston lets loose... Singing in the streets, car horns beeping. Pretty festive out there.

Tonight's antherm: "Dirty Water "- The Standells. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqKHqWaTv9g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqKHqWaTv9g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

They got him. Suspect in custody, on way to hospital.

I'm a humanist, but its hard to have a lot of sympathy for this guy. http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BIQSZK2CEAQzUfg.jpg

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BIQSZK2CEAQzUfg.jpg

New Boston shootout; body found on boat in backyard.

Update Re: my #BostonMarathon bombing pix

Yesterday, the FBI sent 2 agents to my apartment to get full-resolution
copies of the pix I posted earlier this week on my blog.
http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/ I'd previously sent in low-res versions
to the FBI's digital submission page, but I guess they wanted the
full-res, because I was so close to the second blast location.

I also learned (just today) that the HuffingtonPost used a bunch of my
photos last Tuesday:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/boston-marathon-explosion-pictures_n_3095317.

Boston waits...

http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-waits.html

Boston waits...

In the last week, I’ve heard a lifetime’s worth of sirens. Last night’s constant stream of police and emergency vehicles was second only to that of the hours following the Marathon blasts.

Outside my windows, here in the Fens, the streets are very quiet now; very light traffic and few pedestrians. It looks more like New Year’s morning, or some other holiday, rather than a warm Spring Friday.

It’s been hard to get good information. Boston activated its Reverse-911 outcall system this morning, phoning the landlines of all local residents with a recorded “shelter in place” advisory. Some of the local TV stations have been responsible and accurate, but every station has its blowhards and low-IQ on-air people who say whatever vagrant thought drifts through their mind.

I’ve turned off the TV for now. I’m monitoring online newsfeeds --- they’re less strident, intrusive, and disturbing than broadcast.

It’s clear this will be over soon, one way or another. A million people here will breathe a sigh of relief when that happens. And then maybe life can get back to normal.  

I think, at this point, that everyone in Boston just wants this to be over.

NASA’s Kepler mission's tally of planets

Interesting graphic:

http://t.co/9ceky3LrPs

4Chan crowd-sourced forensics finds possible #BostonMarathon suspect

It appears to be the same guy in the same location, with and without a black nylon backpack, of the sort the FBI says may have contained one of the bombs.

No idea if it's true, but it's surely interesting.



http://basedheisenberg.tumblr.com/post/48181500129/what-happens-when-you-give-4chan-images-of-the-boston

This was true today, too.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BH7GE8oCMAE0hq3.jpg

#bostonmarathon

Could have been worse: 2 more explosive devices found at Boston
Marathon; being dismantled


Jesus Christ, those idiots.

#bostonmarathon more (cont)

The Marathon is suspended. Boston T's Green line is stopped; the Red
line is bypassing the stations nearest the blast site. All off-duty
police have been called in.

There are reports of a third blast; but that may have been police
detonating a suspicious package. There also was a confirmed fire at the
JFK Library; no one yet knows if it's related. There is construction at
the library, so it might be coincidence.

Oh fuck; TV now says 2 dead. That must have been the first blast, which
seemed larger.

I am so goddam angry right now.

#bostonmarathon more

Thanks to all who have asked --- I'm fine.

I felt both blasts in my chest; there was considerable blast wave. But I
am totally uninjured.

The smoke smelled like gunpowder --- fireworks --- rather than a
high-tech explosive. To me, that suggests some wacko amateur rather than
a professional attack.

I am so angry at the fucking assholes that did this. I can barely type.
Idiots.

#bostonmarathon pix series 15

#bostonmarathon pix series 14

#bostonmarathon pix series 13

#bostonmarathon pix series 12

#bostonmarathon pix series 11

#bostonmarathon pix series 10

#bostonmarathon pix series 9

#bostonmarathon pix series 8

#bostonmarathon pix series 7

#bostonmarathon pix series 6

#bostonmarathon pix series 5

#bostonmarathon pix series 5

#bostonmarathon pix series 4

#bostonmarathon pix series 3

#bostonmarathon pix series 2

#bostonmarathon pix series, seconds after the second blast

explosions at #bostonmarathon

Two gunpowder bombs, probably in streetside trash cans half a block
apart, exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon today, on
the north side of Boylston Street, at the Pru/Copley Square. They
exploded abour 30 seconds apart.

I was about 200 feet (60m) from the second blast.

The first blast seemed larger, but that might be an artifact of crowd
placement and other variables.

When the first blast went off, most people looked up; there was no
initial panic where I was; no one knew what was happening. The second
blast caused a stampede.

I saw several injured. The wounds I saw were to the legs and lower
bodies of the people nearest the trash cans. Pants legs were shredded
and smoldering, bloody skin beneath. People were concussed and shaken.
Several were on the ground, but conscious.

None of the injuries I saw appeared life threatening, thank god. TV
reports are saying some people lost limbs, but I didn't see anything
remotely that severe.

TV is also reporting the blasts were inside a building. That's also not
what I saw.

More to come.

Explosions at boston marathon

Two trash cans exploded near the finish of the Boston Marathon today. Several people were injured. The explosions smells like gunpowder. I was with in about 200 feet of 1 of. The crowds are frantic. There was a small Stampede. More later when I get home.

‘The Matrix’ Makes A Return In New TV Commercial

http://designtaxi.com/news/357073/The-Matrix-Makes-A-Return-In-New-TV-Commercial/

A landslide at Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon open-pit mine occurred Wednesday; it's take two years to dig out.

Before/after pix, more: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=460&sid=24766164&page=1#2

What Were the Top 10 Google Searches of 2012?

#2 was Hurricane Sandy. That makes sense to me.



But I do not understand #1 at all. Sigh.

http://www.chacha.com/gallery/5319/what-were-the-most-popular-google-searches-of-2012