Categories
Stuff

Rain drops

I have several essays I’m working on, and as happens when you split your attention into completely different directions, you write and write, but you can’t finish anything. Or if you finish something, you’re not sure you’re happy with it. You feel grumbly, and dissatisfied, and kind of pissed at the whole thing.

Rather than maintain this state, I’m just going to leave everything for the rest of the weekend and go for a walk. A long walk.

However, I did want to point out a fun little scientific article at the BBC that’s making the rounds. Monster raindrops delight experts goes the headlines, about the discovery of the largest raindrops in scientific history. (Thanks to Rogi.)

And there’s also Jerry’s unique form of solar photography using a home telescope and a digital camera. Pretty amazing stuff.

Then there’s my own less impressive contribution to science: my Care and Feeding of Hurricanes done completely in DHTML (Dynamic HTML) – created over four years ago.

It’s not very polished, but it still works all these years later–which isn’t bad for web technology. Especially considering that the JavaScript files that run this application, cbobjects.js and animator.js, were created in 1997.

(Sorry, does not work in Safari. And it requires Javascript. Also, you need to forget all the really sophisticated Flash movies you’ve ever seen before looking at it.)

Categories
Connecting

If only we could see each other’s eyes

During my recent walks in my favorite enchanted forest, I’ve noticed that every day there are fewer lightning bugs, and more well-fed robins. As quickly as nature creates magic, it erases it. Ah, but I’ve fooled that old, contrary lady because her work continues to live in my memory and in my writing.

Well, I should say it lives on in my memory until she gets the last laugh when I’m old and feeble and can’t remember my own name or that robe sleeves aren’t edible, much less one magical moment. Perhaps that’s why the urge to write is so strong in many of us –an act of defiance against the end of both magic and mind.