Catagraph.us

“Close enough to catch!”

Time to upgrade WordPress — again. The updates are coming so fast that I’m considering putting the whole site into git and automating updates through Capistrano. The amount of time saved could be quite significant — which becomes ever more important as the end of the year approaches.

With respect to Calliope’s Book: Being an amateur story-teller, I possess only a rough idea of where the current situation is headed. Engaging in inexpensive exploration — like sketching — seems a good way to feel things out, but requires the audience to accept the possibility of changes along the way. I like Linus Pauling’s viewpoint in these matters: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” I hope that’s agreeable.

• The Donnell Library Center: A Eulogy In Pictures – “A few months ago the [Donnell] Library closed its doors. Since [1955] the library on 53rd street has been a New York landmark. It stood across from MOMA and had one of the best film libraries in the city. Unfortunately, the City Of New York thought it would better serve the public as another midtown luxury hotel. Due to the bylaws establishing the library that space HAS to have a library, but due to loop holes, they are tearing it down, building the hotel and then shoving the library into the basement.”
• Atoms, Motion and the Void – “Atoms, Motion & the Void” has been named “Best Podcast in New Hampshire for 2007″ by New Hampshire Magazine. I haven’t listened to any of the shows yet, but anything with these descriptions — “In which Sherwin’s insomnia leads to a late night voyage up into the sky…” — _has_ to be good. Sherwin Sleeves is creation and alter-ego of Sean Hurley, a regular contributor to New Hampshire Public Radio.
• Source Of Geysers On Saturn’s Moon Enceladus May Be Underground Water – “There are only three places in the solar system we know or suspect to have liquid water near the surface,” [University of Colorado Assistant Professor Joshua] Colwell said. “Earth, Jupiter’s moon Europa and now Saturn’s Enceladus. Water is a basic ingredient for life, and there are certainly implications there. If we find that the tidal heating that we believe causes these geysers is a common planetary systems phenomenon, then it gets really interesting.”
• A Review of Criticality Accidents – A comprehensive report from the Los Alamos National Laboratory documenting sixty separate accidents involving fissile material which resulted in prompt power excursions. Required reading if you’re handling such materials, I would imagine. The report is formatted as a PDF.

Update: More insight into the Donnell library closing — and 11 libraries closing in Philadelphia — at MetaFilter.