Meteor shower December 13-14

Just thought I'd share this:
Best Meteor Shower of 2007 Peaks Dec. 13
"What could be the best meteor display of the year will reach its peak on the night of Dec.13-14.

Here is what astronomers David Levy and Stephen Edberg have written of the annual Geminid Meteor Shower: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor."

...

There is a fair chance of perhaps catching sight of some "Earth-grazing" meteors. Earth grazers are long, bright shooting stars that streak overhead from a point near to even just below the horizon. Such meteors are so distinctive because they follow long paths nearly parallel to our atmosphere.

The Geminids begin to appear noticeably more numerous in the hours after 10 p.m. local time, because the shower's radiant is already fairly high in the eastern sky by then. The best views, however, come around 2 a.m., when their radiant point will be passing very nearly overhead."

The full article is at http://www.space.com/spacewatch/071207-ns-geminids.html

As I've said before I find meteoroids very exciting! I surely will be out watching for this meteor shower. Will you? :-P

IETF: The twelve networking truths

Whether you are a network engineer, a technician or just use computers for the occasional game and porn, the Internet Engineering Task Force's RFC 1925 is a must read. The Network Working Group supposedly produced this indispensable memo to document a few things about networking that almost every networking and computer training course happily skips on.

- Check out IETF RFC 1925 ;-)

Isolate stem cells at home

Short entry. Just HAD to pass this on!!

- How to Isolate Amniotic Stem Cells from the Placenta, AT HOME

Placenta, anyone? :-P

Time travel

Time travel is one of those sci-fi fantasies that had fascinated me since I was a very young kid. I reckon most people are fascinated by the idea as well but reject it as being impossible or utterly crazy. However, I for one, have always kept a hold on to the idea that time travel may indeed be possible sooner than never...

I found the link on Digg today to a documentary by the BBC titled "The World's First Time Machine". It follows research by Prof. Ronald Mallet on his quest to build the world's first working time machine - to attempt and succeed at the feat. He thinks that building and testing this machine would pave the way for solutions and answers to the puzzles and complexities involving time travel, including exploring the practical truths of the Grandfather Paradox.

- View the video at Google Video
- Download the video in AVI format

Prof. Mallet's paper "Weak gravitational field of the electromagnetic radiation in a ring laser" is a good read on the principles by which his time machine operates and the theory that goes with it.

I have no idea as to the validity of his claims but I would eagerly watch this quest for time travel. Let us hope there comes a message from the future when the machine is turned on, an event which is suggested in the documentary as being possible! ;-)

Enjoy.