Nicht zu vergessen: Wunderschöne Venus / Merkur-Konjunktion abends nach Sonnenuntergang!
if you’ve never seen mercury naked-eye, you have another chance tomorrow when both planets will be setting next to each other separated only a couple of degrees in RA.
On Baltrum, we were treated to a lovely sunset with an even better view as the the inner planets set following the sun, glowing a calm yellow-creamish colour.
While this isn’t the first time I’ve spotted Mercury without visual aids, it’s surely never been so easy as it was here on Baltrum, a small island in the Northern Sea.
I observed my first minor planet ever this evening: 4 Vesta is currently situated right under the “Lions Head” in Leo, and at mag 6m.55, it’s easy prey for both binoculars and backyard telescopes.
I found that limiting magnitude tonight is around 3m.5, so the situation wasn’t ideal, still it was fun thinking that this is a cold rock hurtling around the sun between Mars (shining nearby, a little west in the constellation cancer) and Jupiter.
My dojo / Mein Dojo:
Hi folks,
the fine folks over at http://www.simracers.de/ would like to invite you to a special 2h team event to celebrate the imminent release of the Mazda 787B Prototype Sportscar mod. More details can be found here:
http://www.zitterpalme.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2287&
Please register with the forum if you haven’t already and let us know which car you’d like to race and who the team members are.
Mod Download URL:
http://www.zitterpalme.de/post/MAZDA787B_RC1.rar
Track Download URL:
http://www.zitterpalme.de/post/Lemans2004_BBSE_v1.7z
Race Server: lu.gplrank.de (simracers.de 2)
(This is a pre-release version, the official release version will be announced and put up for download later)
Race details:
Date: 25. Mar 2010
Praccy Start = 19:00 CET 25 Min. free praccy
Qualifying = 19:25 CET | 30 Min.
Warmup = 19:55 CET | 5 Min.
Race start = 20:00 CET / 1900 GMT / 1400 EST (when will the US switch to DST this year?)
Race length = 120 Minutes (at least one driver change required)
= 90 Min if we don’t get at least 15 team entries, then it’s going to be a normal race with one driver / car
Start: Formation lap / flying start
This will be a team race (2 drivers per team, rF driver change mechanism employed) provided we receive at least 15 team entries. Anything less than that and we’ll do a normal, 90 min single driver race.
If you’d like to take a look of the Mazda mod in action, check this video:
http://www.vimeo.com/10010146
Don’t miss out on this chance to take a sneak peek at this great new rFactor mod!
All the best & looking forward to seeing you on the track.
Uwe
Thanks to Matthias Bögel, the official results are now available here:
The replay is also available here:
All the best, congrats to Matt & Steven for their class wins and hope to see you all again (and hopefully a few more) at the next event!
Uwe
Here’s the guy who arranged North Sea Gas’ first recording deal:
http://nsg.gplrank.de/news
Thanks Jim!
heute gegen 1300 das bisherige ornithologische Highlight dieses Jahres für mich: In der Nähe der “Alpakawiese” am Wüstener Weg im Stuckenberg sucht ein einsamer, männlicher Schwarzspecht nach Nahrung. Zuerst haben wir (meine Tochter Hannah und ich) nur den Ruf gehört, es hörte sich so an, als würde jemand auf einem Grashalm einen einzelnen, kurzen lauten Ton erzeugen, da war mir schon klar, dass das was Besonderes sein musste, da ich einen solchen Ruf noch nie zuvor gehört hatte.
Hannah hat den Vogel dann als erstes an einer Birke entdeckt, ein wunderschönes, grosses Tier mit rotem Kamm und hellen, weisslichen Augen und verhältnismässig grossen Klauen, echt klasse. Seit Ewigkeiten war das mal wieder ein neues “Kreuzchen” in meinem 25 Jahre alten “Pareys” (Das Bild habe ich bei google images gefunden 😉
Weiterhin auf dem Erika-Friedhof 10-12 Stieglitze in den Bäumen, die machten einen Krach, als ob schon Frühling wäre 😉 sowie ein Buntspecht und diverse Buchfinken und Meisen.
Thanks to the Ubuntu forums, I’ve finally managed to fix the broken osd / notification system in 9.10 on a t41 thinkpad (the bug affects all radeon based devices, I believe) by adding the line
Option "RenderAccel" "off"
to /etc/X11/xorg.conf
However I had to create xorg.conf first, check the Ubuntu forums for more information (search for “karmic no xorg.conf”), for example. It was also suggested to limit / set the AGPSize to “32”, but sadly this did not solve my problem.
On the upside, “Stellarium” runs again, on the downside, it’s now slow as molasses, but that’s still better than a segfault in my book. Why the developers broke something in karmic that worked without a hitch in jaunty and earlier is beyond me, however.
ProSieben recently aired a new “The Simpsons” Episode where the family visits Ireland, granting a wish to Grampa as he was stationed there during WWII. As the folks entered Dublin this billboard caught my eye; it was only on-screen for about three seconds:
This is funny on so many levels I nearly cracked up laughing. Only in “The Simpsons” will the writers go to great lengths to think up such a joke and then grant it all of three seconds precious “air time”. Thanks guys!
Kurzer Rundgang heute nachmittag im Bereich Stuckenberg / Vlothoer Strasse bei wunderschönem Winterwetter, vogelmässig war eher weniger los, bis auf ein paar Gimpel, 2x Buntspecht, 4 Schwanz-, 2 Weiden- und diverse Blau- und Kohlmeisen. Auf dem Friedhof einige Kleiber sowie Grünfinken vergesellschaftet mit Buchfinken.
Die Weidenmeisen konnte ich beim “Eisbaden” im Bach beobachten, echt knallhart, die Jungs und Mädels 😉
A couple of weeks ago, I first started using Chrome in a serious manner, now that extensions were finally available. While back then things were still a bit sketchy, esp. in the “Adblock Plus” alike department, AdThwart has come a long way and seems to have been updated daily since then.
It now supports on-the-fly filter creation, adblock plus blocklists (with full syntax support) and also the unnerving “flashing” of ads while they are being removed is now gone.
So together with the plugins “bettergmail”, “proxyswitchy” and a flash killer of sorts, google chrome has now become my primary browser for daily use on Linux (primarily Mint 8, but also Ubuntu Lucid Alpha 1). Memory footprint is lower than Firefox’es (can be an issue on a 1gb laptop), it’s way faster both in HTML and Javascript processing and hasn’t crashed on me in any serious way ever since I started using it. Also, the flash plugin somehow performs better than in Firefox.
Theme support also has come a long way, with one-click installs right from Chrome’s theme library, and there are some real beauties out there.
If I didn’t have any concerns about google’s ever-growing influence and the slow, but steady erosion of their once high-held company credo “don’t be evil”, I’d easily give it a 10 rating, but with this in mind I’ll stick with an 8.5 out of ten for now.
Keep up the good work!
Auf dem fast schon traditionellen Neujahrsspaziergang (dieses Mal ohne Hannah) hatte ich endlich mal wieder den Gucki mit. Das Resultat nach 1,5h im Schnee zwischen Elverdissen und Brake:
– 3 Kormorane
– 1 Waldbaumläufer
-2 x 20-30 Wachholderdrosseln
– 1 Zaunkönig
– 10-20 Lachmöwen an der Aa
– 1 Rotkehlchen
– 1 Schwarm Buchfinken
– 2 Kleiber
– 1 Buntspecht
Listening to “cairdeas” Album “Autumn” again today, I came across the tune “both sides the tweed” which caught my interest, so I grabbed the lyrics off the net and put some chords to it. Lovely song about reconciliation of Scotland and England of all countries, if you can believe it!
Thanks to the original web page, “Dick Gaughans Song Archive” for providing the lyrics.
The chords can be a bit off placement wise depending on your browser font rendering, so please adjust accordingly!
Both Sides The Tweed
What’s the spring-breathing jasmine and rose?
C G Em
What’s the summer with all its gay train
Am C F
Or the splendour of autumn to those
Am G Am
Who’ve bartered their freedom for gain?
CHORUS
Am F C Am
Let the love of our land’s sacred rights
C G Em
To the love of our people succeed
Am F
Let friendship and honour unite
C G D / Am
And flourish on both sides the Tweed.
2)
No sweetness the senses can cheer
Which corruption and bribery bind
No brightness that sun can e’er clear
For honour’s the sum of the mind
3)
Let virtue distinguish the brave
Place riches in lowest degree
Think them poorest who can be a slave
Them richest who dare to be free