Either something's changed about my feet -- quite possible, considering my joint problems -- or the new fashion in supposedly ergonomic shoes is to move the arch support so far back that half one's arch is unsupported and all one's weight ends up teetering on an area just in front of the heel, which hurts with plantar fasciitis.
( nattering about shoes and foot pain )

Ladybusiness' Gender discrimination in SFF awards has the hard research and numbers breakdown.

Abstract:

"This project demonstrates that SFF books by or about cis women are less likely to win awards than books by or about cis men. Trans and nonbinary authors do not win awards at all, and trans or nonbinary protagonists are extremely rare. Overall, there were more award-winning books written by cis men about cis men than there were books by women about anybody. While there have been recent gains in terms of diversity in awarded books, this is likely part of a cycle of gains and pushback that has repeated itself throughout the history of SFF awards. SFF awards have a problem when it comes to gender: they privilege cis men and the cis male experience over that of cis women and trans and nonbinary individuals."

"it fell off, so I ate it." -- my dad

... budding musician in the apartment complex across from my home office is learning to play the clarinet.

I approve of musicians and understand that drills are necessary, but I am rapidly becoming less fond of "Sakura, Sakura" than I was a day ago.

Also, I have rather frequent headaches now due to eyestrain, so... rrrrrgh.

I really, really need a camera for astrophotography.

Holding a point-and-shoot camera over the lens of my wee beginner telescope is not, repeat, NOT the way to do this. So these photos are not great. BUT!

It's a comet.

( my Pan-starrs photos )

Taken at Orange County Great Park, almost exactly 8PM. I heard coyotes howling in the distance, which I find beautiful.

(black strips are some sapling treetops in foreground, which I was using to help me find the comet after spotting it with binocs.)

So I went out to the Great Park tonight to look for Comet PanStarrs, after failing last night because of fog on the ocean. I even got a new app, SkySafari, which lets you look up comets and everything else (Comet C/2011 L4 = Panstarrs)!, and then it draws a green arrow pointing to whatever the heck you're trying to find. IT'S OVER THERE, YOU TWIT!

Pannstars is tricky. It should be naked-eye by now, but it's hanging so close to the sun that there's only a very short window after the sun goes down and the sun-glare fades before Panstarrs, also, sets.

I had nearly given up when, suddenly, through the horizon haze, I spotted it (or so I thought) with binocs. YES! YES! THERE IT WAS! Fuzzy little ball with faintish wisp going up.

Except that after writing my "I saw Comet Panstarrs!" post, I found this photo taken five days ago, and now realize that I accidentally a different comet. What I saw looked more like "Lemmon" in this picture: the distinct snowball on the end.


By Juri Beletsky, Observatorio de Las Campanas, Chile [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Nevertheless, comet Panstarrs SHOULD be visible to the naked eye this week -- barely -- and quite visible with binoculars.

( How to find comet PANSTARRS (visible March 10-20 or so) )

I will be trying again all week. There's an astronomy club demo at the Great Park on Friday with big telescopes, but the lines are always looooong. So, we'll see.

I sure hope comet ISON survives its close encounter with the sun later this year and puts on a show for us in November. If it doesn't melt away completely during its swing around the sun, it should be easy to see with the naked eye. Unfortunately, it's cutting the turn really fine -- only 100,000 miles above the sun's surface! -- so it could get vaporized. But if it survives, it may be the brightest comet since the 1600s.

So, a round-up, partly so I can find this stuff later.

Excellent summary from Sky & Telescope.



( Two astounding video compilations, more links about actual SCIENCE of this thing )

Today I accompanied my Dad, a volunteer for Hawkwatch.org, to a demo of two raptors at the Utah Natural History Museum. Lighting was lousy, but I got some deent photos.

Here's Kotori the Great-Horned Owl.


(click for full-size)

Here's Calurus the Red-Tailed Hawk.


(click for full-size)

(Both are rescues who can't survive in the wild; see link above for more info.)

Close-up of Kotori:


(click for full-size)

Houston, we do NOT have a problem with this... 



It's really too bad that NASA only recently acquired some social media savvy employees to do their PR. I suspect that we'd have had a lot more public awareness of past NASA missions, particularly the wonders of the shuttle program, if they'd been doing things like this and MarsCuriosity's "GALE CRATER, I AM IN YOU!" Twitter channel all along.