monday, rainy, 40 degrees F/4 Celsius -- I know half the country is snowed in, but ugh.

I see that today is Adm. Grace Hopper's birthday (107, to be precise.) My favorite part of her legend (a true part, even) is how she used to hand out "nanoseconds" -- a piece of rope about a foot long that was the distance light would travel in a nanosecond. For all you youngsters out there, this was an issue because, in the pre-integrated circuits world, this would have severely impacted the size/speed of computers and GH was on a crusade to explain this (and many other things.) I had a prof in college who'd met her at a conference or something and kept his little loop of a nanosecond hooked over the blackboard in his office (yes, I'm old enough to pre-date cheap/available whiteboards.) I think that gives me 2 degrees of separation from her, right?

eta: Courtesy of sarah, Herself on Letterman, complete with nanoseconds and bonus picoseconds

Also, as we enter the second week of December, with the holidays staring me down, it is time to haul out the Embrace Imperfection icon (w/seasonal lighting effects) just to serve as a reminder.

wow, this week keeps getting crazier!

When #2 woke me up this morning to tell me about the meteor in Russia (his sleeping patterns are crazy again so he's up through the night this week) he told me it was "a mini-Tunguska, not a Roswell" and I was so out of it all I could think of was "wait, was Krycek there?" Poor kid, he has no idea what to do with sleep-deprivation-fueled fandom ramblings. (To complete the fandom trifecta, withdiamonds tells me her hockey blogs are keeping her up to date as there is a Russian team there?)

But yeah: mini-Tunguska (meaning it fractured in the atmosphere) and let's just take a moment to think about what the *actual* Tunguska incident must have looked like given that this one was anywhere from a third to a one-hundredth the size of that meteor.

Yay for living in the future and being able to follow along with all these things as they unfold. Also yay for working from home today so I can actually get to youtube and watch. (On that topic, NASA TV is streaming 2012DA14's closest approach, starting any time now. Who knew it was going to be so thoroughly eclipsed?)

Last night's entertainment was The Princess Bride. The boys have already informed me that Armageddon is up tonight. I'll have to see if I can track down a link for ARMAGEDDON*SYNC just for fun. :D