Watching the moon

I didn't quite get outside to see the height of the eclipse, but I did manage to see the sliver of it coming back. The moon wasn't red like other ones I've seen--it was just dark, as if it were new moon. That's so neat, but weird and vaguely wrong at the same time. Hope you got to see the show.

[PS 3/3/08--If you didn't get to see it, or if you'd just like a quick recap, check out this time-lapse video.]

I hope the weather's good

for Wednesday's total eclipse of the moon.

I was a little late getting in tonight

because I helped jump a neighbour's car. Unfortunately it sounds like the starter, not the battery (the car just clicked), so that sort of sucks for them. But it was nice to help someone out, and they weren't even serial killers. :)

On to the news.

It seems to me that either Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is in serious denial or he really believes he can snow constituents. Let's see--caught by police in a sting to stop sex in men's bathrooms at the Minneapolis airport, then keeping the whole thing to himself--not even getting a lawyer--and pleading guilty and receiving probation, then saying he's not guilty and not gay. Hmmm...I know from intimate sources of my youth just what goes on in men's rooms. I also know from my sociology studies (see, I'm using one of my majors!) that the majority of men who frequent the restrooms do not in acutality identify themselves as gay. There's a reason the CDC and others studying AIDS list it as MSM (men who have sex with men) rather than homosexual. Plus, all this is on top of a local newspaper's investigations of his sexuality given his attitudes towards gay rights. And for pete's sake, in the future, get a room.

Only in San Francisco would they have an 'Astrowizard' explaining the lunar eclipse. :) [Video from SF Gate; requires Quicktime]

I'm interested to see how this plays out in the courts:
Yahoo!: we did not assist torture in China

I think Yahoo! has the stronger case, because 1) when it operates in another country it is subject to that country's laws, 2) users of these sorts of companies are warned in their privacy statements that privacy ends when court-ordered, 3) the dissidents knew at the time that they used the e-mail that they were violating Chinese law and were subject to such a court order, and 4) the plaintiffs are foreign nationals attempting to sue under US court against a US company for actions taking place in a foreign jurisdiction. Now, that doesn't always protect you. Think of American countries sued for profiting from the slave labour of the Holocaust in Europe, for example.

I'm not saying I agree with the laws of China; I don't. Nor would I have handed over the files myself. But, legally speaking, I think Yahoo! has a better footing. It will be interesting to see what the courts decide.

Yipee! You actually get textual content tonight!

I'm home at a semi-reasonable hour tonight. So, here are some random things I needed to blog about:

1. Shane Ragland, who had been convicted of murdering UK football player Trent DiGiuro in 1994, but that conviction had been overturned because a forensics expert lied on the stand, was set for his second murder trial when he copped a plea for second-degree manslaughter instead. The authorities are recommending an eight-year sentence, but with credit for time served, so he'll be out in three days.
   
   I can understand why he took the plea bargain--he was facing life in prison for using a scoped rifle to shoot and kill DiGiuro who was out on a balcony with friends celebrating his 21st birthday. My first thought was why on earth did the Fayette Commonwealth's Attorney offer it? Apparently it was to protect the main witness, who had been under the protection of state and federal agencies, but this could be done only once. Still I don't get it. Wouldn't she be safer with Ragland behind bars?
   
   The defence of course maintains Ragland's innocence, saying that he had to say he did it to get out of jail, basically. What a load of crap. Either you plead guilty because you did it, or you plead innocent because you didn't.
   
   At the time of DiGiuro's death, I lived two blocks away, near campus. It shocked the community that anyone would do this. Now the guy's going to just walk? Argh. My thoughts are with DiGiuro's family. It's been an emotional rollercoaster and I'm sure this isn't how they wanted it to end, although I guess it's good he did serve some time.
   
   
2. On a lighter note, the moon is high and beautiful and full overhead, but later on tonight there will be a full lunar eclipse. It'll be near morning, which might affect viewing. I'm not sure if I want to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to watch, but thought I'd put it out there for any of you who want to watch it. The high point I think is 5:52 EDT.
   
   
3. My neighbour across the hall, who is Hindu, came up to me and told me that in her religion they feed animals because they are close to God, and she didn't have any and neither did her friends. Her family is far away. So she wondered if it would be okay to get food for my dog and if so, what kind do I feed her? I told her that would be fine, but I was pretty sure it had beef in it and I didn't know if that would be a problem. I looked at the ingredients and there it was. She said she'd check with her mother (she seems pretty young, in her early 20s). Apparently it was alright because this morning next to the newspaper there was a bag of food for Cerys. So Cerys benefits and so do we. That's very nice of them. I must find a way to thank them (although I wish they'd feed me; I constantly smelling wonderful smells of Indian food when I pass their apartment). :)
   
   
4. I worked 10 hours Saturday but I'm off from the store today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. Yay! Maybe I can get some rest.
   
   
5. Despite the heat and drought, I've seen lots of butterflies lately. I love them. My middle name, Eilir, actually means butterfly in Welsh. They're wonderful examples of transformation.
   
   
6. I'm beginning to get stuff out of the library. I have boxes of books in my new closet, and I'm putting the journals that have been weeded on a cart to go back to the compactor (and yes, I did offer them to other libraries first). Emptying that shelving unit gives me room for things that were on my small bookshelf, which will be going away. Eventually my desk will be back with that larger shelf. I need to keep room for acquisitions to be processed, though.
   

That's all I can think of right now.

I saw just a smidge

Listening to: 'Lithium' by Evanescence

of the eclipse as I walked out after work tonight. It's been an odd day weather- and sky-wise. It started out fairly nice this morning, albeit windy, and then turned to snow (not sticking, just big giant flakes going horizontal in the wind), but it stayed sunny for the most part. It threw me off. I actually saw the flakes and thought, oh, it's the cotton off of the trees, because it had been so warm and it kind of messed my sense of time (as in a month or two off), and unfortunately asked what the stuff was blowing in the wind. One of the customers said, gently, that it was snow. So brain dead today. Over the course of the day it turned pretty darn cold. Now it's snowing again, and I think it's beginning to stick, so who knows how things will be tomorrow. This, after temperatures in the fifties most of the week. Welcome to Kentucky weather.

What else to blog about? Tomorrow is GM's (Game Master's) Day, and we're appropriately enough, gaming. I picked up a little something for ours at the Rusty Scabbard. Be sure to show your GM how much you appreciate him/her. It takes a lot of investment in time and books, not to mention plotting out your demise in a way that is both fun and consistent, to do a bang-up job as a Game Master. And if you're very fortunate enough to have a particularly talented one, like ours, you definitely need to show appreciation with proper bribes and good player behaviour, on GM's day and every day. :)

Cool

If you live in the Americas, keep an eye in the sky at moonrise (about sunset and a little after) on March 3rd, because there will be a total lunar eclipse. We'll just get the end of it; those in Africa and Europe will see the whole thing (it'll be later for them in the night). Pretty much, though, unless you're in the middle of the Pacific, you can see part of the eclipse (there's a map on the site, too. To read it, just let the cursor hover until a zoom box appears in the lower right corner, then click on that to make it bigger.

Remember, you're a part of the cosmos. Enjoy the show.