Update: things have now settled down:

Here’s the fascinating story of a strange oblong object in Earth orbit, and the research into its origin. It turns out the object is probably an Apollo-era booster that was put into the wrong orbit, and has actually shifted between orbiting the Earth and orbiting the Sun over the past three decades: Mystery Object Orbits […]

Today I marked my tenth anniversary with United Space Alliance. When I joined the company, it was known as RSOC, the Rockwell Space Operations Company. About six months after I hired on, Rockwell and Lockheed Martin combined their NASA contracts and spun off USA as the prime contractor for Space Shuttle operations. Everyone changed badges […]

Maybe I’ll get me a transistor on the back of my hand.

Yeah, it’s cold out. I think it’s refreshing when, after a long sweltering summer, we have a cold spell or two. But I’ll make no excuses about it: I’m a warm weather boy, and I’m not happy when the temperature falls into the thirties. Most of you know how, when Wendy and I got married, […]

I’ve never been a big Beatles fan; that whole phenomenon occurred a bit before my time. But I remember what happened on this day twenty-five years ago. I remember it as one of those mileposts along the way of my youth, like the day Reagan was shot, or the day we lost Challenger. I remember […]

Evil Dwight (as he’s apparently known around the office) over at the Chonicle asks his readers what tool they use to read RSS feeds, and he tosses out this judgment: “Web-based readers are fine when you aren’t sitting at your own PC, but they can’t yet hold a candle to a well-designed piece of client […]

As many of the pundits predicted, the Capital One Bowl selected Auburn to play Wisconsin in Orlando on January 2nd. Auburn has played well in this game over the years, posting a 3-1 record. In 1982, when the game was known as the Tangerine Bowl, we beat Doug Flutie and Boston College. In 1987, after […]

Via Cousin Joy:

Hurricane season may be “officially” over, but don’t tell Hurricane Epsilon. I guess hurricanes don’t keep calendars.