Tom Waits



Q: How hard is it to get the sound you hear in your head translated accurately to a recording?

A: "As soon as the songs hear the crack of that rifle, they go running for cover. But I've usually got three days worth of food and a scope. You want to avoid recording the feathers and throwing away the bird, I guess. You do want something to be living in them. So you sneak up on them. Because the recording process involves putting something through a machine, you have to wonder what falls down into the filter. Sometimes we pull out that lint and make other songs."


Interview excerpt taken from:
"I Hope More People Misunderstand Me"
USA Today (USA), by Edna Gundersen
Published: June 17, 2002

HAPPY EASTER:

Improvements to the commenting section now use the more popular HALOSCAN system. Simply click the Comments link at the bottom of any post, and rock your thoughts back to JEFF BOOTH!

Rock 'em if you got 'em!

Jeff Booth

The final contact attempt to reach NASA's Pioneer 10 satellite fell upon the probe's deaf ears, according to a report issued March 6th, 2006, by the Pioneer Anomaly Team.

Slava Turyshev, Pioneer Anomaly Team Member, writes:

"We carried out the observations of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, per a proposal that was approved by NASA earlier last week, on Friday and Saturday nights, March 3 and 4, 2006 (local time). Sadly, there was no real-time detection of a carrier signal from the spacecraft."

The Earth and planetary bodies were best aligned for contact for the last time on March 3rd and 4th, leading scientists to believe that despite the aging electronics on board, the extreme coldness of outer space and the dwindling power left in the space probe's communication systems, there was a chance to decipher Pioneer 10's faint output. Despite no obvious signal, the team plans to analyse the data further:

"We did carry out open-loop RSR [Radio Science Receiver] recordings of the two passes for archiving. We will process the recordings using parameters that would increase the resolution over the real-time spectral reporting by the receiver, and search for a signal."

The data collected over the two day period has now been assembled and ready for further analysis at JPL.

Is this the end of existence for Pioneer 10? We think not. Shine on, you crazy diamond!

Jeff Booth

The following exerpt was taken from the 2005 Pioneer Anomaly Conference held November 6-10, 2005, in Bern, Switzerland:

"On March 4, 2006, assuming it has enough power, we hope to wake it up and ask it for just an ounce more of data—despite early news reports back in 2003 stating we had heard from it for the last time. After that, Pioneer 10 will continue on its path, never aligning, in just the right way, to talk to us again. We are not sure what to expect, if we can expect anything, but every bit of information we can obtain is vital to discovering the source of the Pioneer anomaly. This will be the very last chance of ever hearing from Pioneer 10 again." - Merek Chertkow, The Planetary Society

Read the full article here:
2005 Pioneer Anomaly Conference

Learn more about the Pioneer Anomaly.

Happy New Year!

Jeff

Main Entry: blog·gery
Pronunciation: 'blä-g&-rE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ger·ies
1 : a place where web logs are made or written
2 a : the art or craft of the blogger b : the creation and postings of daily diaries on the Internet
3 : Blogging; especially : personal editorial as distinguished on the one hand from published works in print and electronic means on the other.
eg. "My friend Meegee is consumed by bloggery; she posts practically every day!"

[Yep, you heard it here first. Now you know.]


Question: When was the last time the term "multimedia" held any kind of meaningful relevance for you?


Main Entry: spe·lunk·ing
Pronunciation: -ki[ng]
Function: noun
: the hobby or practice of exploring caves


Main Entry: in·teg·ri·ty
Pronunciation: in-'te-gr&-tE
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English integrite, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French integrité, from Latin integritat-, integritas, from integr-, integer entire
1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY
2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS
synonym see HONESTY


[Thanks to Merriam Webster Online for most (but surely not all) of the above.]


Some good books to read: Walden, and, Plan B.


[Really -- they are both excellent books. Check them out.]