Celebrate the (ahem) Colon, the Semi-colon (oh, now I get it), the Question Mark, Period and More

Yes, folks, today is National Punctuation Day. Every August 22nd.

"A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes, and other proper uses of periods, semi-colons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis."

Party Hardy!!!

Bob Moog ---- 1934-2005

Although I spent some years teaching electronic music at the school where I've worked for a bit, I didn't ever actually use a Moog synthesizer in my electronic music lab. But I knew that none of the keyboard synthesizers I did use would probably have existed were it not for the pioneering work of Bob Moog.

Today marks his passing. Although I don't know many of the details, I understand that he suffered from a brain tumor.

I took this occasion to visit a site that is dedicated to Moog Music. There is, naturally, much information gathered here that promotes the music and instruments developed and inspired by Bob Moog. At the moment, there is also articles that celebrate the life of this energetic and creative force in music.

Mummies, Ancient Egypt, and Your Here-after

A website -- Museum of Science - Ancient Egypt, Science and Technology -- presents not only a range of fascinating information about one of my favorite subjects: mummies, but much, much more.

You can explore Egyptian excavations and learn about Egyptian afterlife.

Not only that, there is a link on this site where you can start planning your afterlife (it's a site called "Eternity Travel.com". Talk about using technology to plan ahead!

(Don't miss the opportunity to send a "buried message", too.)

Amazing Migrations Of Some Amazing Birds

Thanks to some great deaktop wallpaper I saw at a colleague's workstation, I have found a website with a wealth of information about migrating birds. Somewhat unusually, in a sense, the starting point for this breadth of information about migration, migration patterns, migration routes, habitat, and other aspects of the birds presented, is a website promoting a major studio's film. Sony Pictures Classics released Winged Migration back in 2001 and it was met with generally favorable reviews. Great for Sony to have kept this site up for this long and, we can hope, for a while yet.

Whether or not you end up wanting to see the movie on DVD, visit the site. You can explore the movie, check out links for the birds whose migration the movie showed, and even download a few images for your desktop wallpaper, if you wish.

It's On Its Way!

The Mars Reconaissance Orbiter did get off today. As the MRO website says:

Next Stop, Mars! - 8/12/05

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter lifted off this morning at 7:43 AM EDT from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The spacecraft is healthy and communicating with ground controllers and the team is overjoyed!
Hurray! Now we wait for the next phase at the red planet.

By the way, I heard today that the programmers on the MRO mission have reprogrammed the MRO to be able to communicate with the Mars Rovers who are still working -- long after their expected life expectancy. Amazing!

More MRO

Well, the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter didn't get off the ground today as scheduled. Today's problem an apparent computer glitch unlike yesterday's question about properly operating gyroscopes.

Click here for updates on MRO.

I've also decided to link a couple NPR stories to provide more details about the Rover and MRO missions to Mars from Talk of the Nation, as well as a background piece from All Things Considered: NASA Preps Mars Probe for Launch.

Back To Mars

NASA is about to launch another unmanned exploratory mission to our neighbor planet, Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was originally set to launch today but has been put off at least twenty-four hours until tomorrow.

After our previous effort -- the duo of Mars Rovers that are still sending back pictures of the surface of the "red planet" -- the prospect of more information about Mars is of great interest.

Click here to go to a part of NASA's site devoted to the MRO. There you'll find a countdown read-out leading up to the launch plus much background about the mission and Mars, too. And, of course, once the orbiter gets off the ground, this site will provide constant updates about the status and progress of the MRO mission.

Like To Have That Weightless Feeling?

The return on the Discovery crew today has brought a number of commentators -- people who have been on a shuttle or in the space station before -- to interviews talking about what it's like to live in a weightless environment.

Not many of us earthbound types can have this experience, but there is a site that gives us a view into that world....at least a terrestrial version of it. These folks use airplanes to recreate a zero or near-zero gravity world and spend a few precious seconds or minutes flying free.

To hear them tell of their experiences and see pictures of them flying around, go to Space.com's site caled Zero-G.