Pretty picture of the day

I was poking around on the homepage for the Cassini mission and noticed they had posted a new image today. It's a shot of the rings plus four moon, but I had to go to the full-res view in order to see the smallest moon in the photo, Pandora. On the front page of the mission site, there is a countdown to the next flyby of Titan, which is 25 days from now.

R. wins 291-284

R. wins 291-284
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Today at Fusion Brew

A. wins 298-282 (timed game)

A. wins 298-282 (timed game)
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Last night at Coffee Hound in Normal.

A. wins 303-280

A. wins 303-280
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Back at Kane's in Peoria today. This was a quick timed game.

R. wins 326-274

R. wins 326-274
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Another timed game tonight. I had a bingo: pillinG, but ended up losing.

A. wins 278-271

A. wins 278-271
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Close game this time around. R. had play of the game with sexy, qis, ate and shy.

R. wins 319-273

R. wins 319-273
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. wins our first timed game of 2008. She had a bingo: hornIer and was holding quizZes at the end of the game, but could not play it.

A. wins 334-244

A. wins 334-244
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. had pretty poor tiles this game.

A. wins 345-281

A. wins 345-281
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I won tonight, but the real story is th 20 minute fire alarm at Fusion Brew.

A. wins 385-318

A. wins 385-318
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

This game was closer than the score shows. I laid a bingo (uNaireD) to go out and R. had 5 tiles left in her rack. Until that point, she had been leading.

Star Power: the Washington Post interviews Neil Tyson

I got to see Neil Tyson give a talk at the American Association of Physics Teachers Summer meeting in Greensboro last year.  He was really entertaining.  He packed a room with over six hundred seats so there was standing room only and people hanging in the hallway trying to listen. He was really funny, even if some of his joke were unoriginal. (How intelligent is a design that puts a sewage treatment facility next to an entertainment system??  Ha ha...ha........ah.) 

What was great, however, was that his whole talk was about how science educators have a responsibility to reach the public and bring science to them.  I'll never forget when he asked the audience how many of them did not have a TV or how many of them only used their TV to watch DVDs.  Somewhere between 15-20% of the people in the crowd raised a hand, many of them proudly.  Tyson then said "Oh, so those of you that raised your hand have no idea who I am, then!"  The person sitting to my right looked at me and said, "Yeah, I have no idea who this guy is and why AAPT is giving him an award."  I could hear murmuring around me that indicated she was not alone in her opinion.  Tyson pointed that he went on to TV shows like Conan O'brien and The Daily Show not to stroke his ego, but because that's where he can reach the widest audience. He then gave the example of watching the Superbowl, not because he particularly enjoys football, but that he wants to be able to relate to people around him the next day.  His point was that if we, as science educators, want to reach out to the public and have a scientifically literate society, then the scientist should be culturally literate and be aware of what the public is tuned into and turned on by (e.g. Conan and The Daily Show.)  I saw the light bulbs go on all around me as he explained this.

Anyway, I was thinking about this because one of the other stories that Tyson told during that talk he also told to a Washington Post reporter in a really good article.  It's a little long, but well worth the read.  The story Tyson told was about an interaction he had with movie director James Cameron.

Star Power  (Washington Post)

R. wins 381-342

R. wins 381-342
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. wins with the help of the only bingo in the game: oneness. I spilled my drink before we started playing

A wins 456-328

A wins 456-328
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I started off this game with a bingo: cabinEd and had a second one later: misspend. The second one was my first ever double-double, good for 102 points. This game was my highest score yet.

After the Estimation game.

After the Estimation game.
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

We played a game of Estimation after afternoon dessert at the Houck Christmas. Jon won.

Vicious kitty.

Vicious kitty.
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

At the UHACC party.

A. wins 338-269

A. wins 338-269
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I started the game with a bingo (oKaying) but didn't really have anything great after that.

A. wins 417-257

A. wins 417-257
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I hit 400+ points for the first time ever with the help of two bingos: roadies and training. Also had a four word combo with some, moss, lids and ones. That was only worth 21 points, but it was fun.

I finally found a great use for the function keys! Using xbindkeys and xbindkeys-config, I was able to easily map the F2, F3, and F4 keys to go directly to the post page for some of my blogs. I'll have to send the .xbindkeysrc file to myself so that I can load this on all the computers that I post from. I don't know if it will help me post more frequently, but it certainly can't hurt.

A wins 354-301

A wins 354-301
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

No bingos. :(

A. wins 370-289

A. wins 370-289
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I had all the good tiles tonight. One bingo: ennoble.