So I'm feeling every one of my years tonight. Just got an invitation to my best friend's daughter's graduation. Y'know, I remember going to say with Pru when she was on bed-rest at the end of that pregnancy and Mr. J had to go outta town for work (ah, the marginally employed days of my early 90s). Anyway, any of y'all with kids probably get constant reminders of this but for the childless, these events in other people's children's lives are sorta like punctuated equilibrium nudges that, yes, time is passing whether we notice it or not.
In other news, even though I'm not reading George R. R. Martin (or watching Game of Thrones), I loved this post on how seasons might work in Westeros. The funny thing is that after I saw the headline of the post but before I got around to reading it, I was thinking about irregular orbits. Which isn't actually right but it could be considered wrong headed in the right direction.
Finally, shout out to the great Chuck Brown, who died yesterday. Here's a track he did with Thievery.

One of the more unpleasant discoveries of the week-so-far is that apparently there remains yet some uncrushed part of my soul in the midst of all the cynicism. It must be so because I'm finding that, as used as I am by now to spin and distortion and all the wow and flutter of politics, I'm still really taken aback by the amount of bald-faced lying that's going on. And it's barely fucking May! I mean, seriously. If people are just gonna be flat-out lying about shit for the rest of the year, I do not know how I will get thru to the election. Perhaps drinking heavily and donating more money.
But enough of that (see: it's barely even May yet). Here's something awesome. It's a nice overview (in the form of a top ten list) of changes in our views of dinosaurs. I'm sure there are many (altho not too many readers of this blog) who will look at the "before" pictures on that list as ancient history, people who never learned that, say, T. Rex looked like that. But I'm old so even tho I've kept up casuallly with dino news (enough at least to have seen the "new" versions of several of that list), it was still sorta nostalgic to see the "before" pictures. Reminded me of my trips to the Smithsonian and the Museum of Natural History back when I was a kid.

So for the second time in five days, we found ourselves in Raleigh last night for dinner and an event. This time we ate at Beasley's Chicken + Honey. So good. Not cheap and I wouldn't argue w/ someone who thought they were charging too much for what amounts to country cookin' on a certain level. But if you don't leave feeling hungry (which we didn't) and the food is delicious (which it certainly was) then the question, I think, becomes what you're willing to pay to support local and sustainable and stuff like that there. So that's for you to decide for you but for me it's worth it. The fried chicken was about as good as I've had locally and the biscuits are also top 5. Reminded me a bit of the glory days of the old farmer's market restaurant in Raleigh. Also highly recommended is the pork shoulder meatloaf. I'm already wondering if I can recreate something like it at home using pre-ground pork or if I'll need to grind the meat to get the right texture. Also, they've got a Fullsteam honey white ale on tap. Which I'd heard them talk about at Fullsteam a few months ago when it was still in development. At that point I think it was a honey & black pepper but since there's no mention of pepper, I guess that got dropped in R&D. There's not a lot of honey flavor in the beer. Which is actually fine by me. I don't think I'd really like an assertive honey flavor in beer. Reminds me a bit of Allagash White, altho with less pronounced citrus flavors (not sure if Allagash actually has citrus flavors or if that's just the association I get cos it's almost always served with an orange wedge on the glass). Anyway, we agreed that it was a good thing Beasley's was in Raleigh cos if it was in Durham we'd be eating there all the damn time.
And why were we downtown Raleigh for dinner, you might ask? Not to see the Xian metalcore band that was playing at the Lincoln and had a line down the block and around the corner (actually, they delayed the doors opening by over half an hour and that's why the line was down the block and around the corner) but to see the Mythbusters: Behind the Myths show. Awesome good time. Plus, y'know, science! At times it was like the world's oddest game show (lots of audience participation). They did do the interleaved phone book trick (that's the only bit that I think was taken directly from one the TV episodes). Adam is clearly a natural performer. Jamie not so much but he's got enough experience to know what he's comfortable doing on stage. My fave bits of the night were the out-of-body-experience helmets, the phone book assisted hoisting of Adam up into the rafters, the high-speed camera shenanigans, and the paintball anti-aircraft gun.

...good times...

Speaking of relativity (as I was last time), let's have a big hand for Albert Einstein. Apparently, a large collection of his papers are about to become available online. Probably more useful to those who can actually read German but still kinda interesting just to be able to see them, even if only digitally. Fun fact: Einstein's birthday is also Pi Day. So, yes, I missed it last week in all the pastry-related hoopla. Better late if ever, I guess...

Here's a fascinating but depressing article on inconvenient scientific claims (via boing²). Looks at controversy around global warming in the context of similar brouhahas about relativity and heliocentrism. Fascinating because, well, who knew? The parallels are interesting and, hopefully, instructive. But also depressing when you look at the timelines and see how long the lag was between acceptance of those new paradigms in the scientific community vs. the general public. And then wonder how much more damage will be done in the decades between now and when enough people will be able to scrape it together and buy a clue that governments and businesses will actually be able to start making changes. Look, it's not like I'll be here to find out either way but someone will be around and it'd be nice if there was something livable for them to be around in.

Following up on yesterday's AVB post, it seems that not everyone in the UK is sold on that whole Guardiola-to-Chelsea rumor. From today's minute-by-minute of the Barca/Leverkusen match: "36 min: Is there anybody out there who seriously believes Pep Guardiola would even consider swapping all this for a load of egomaniacal, football-illiterate has-beens at Chelsea?"
Found this video via Neatorama. It was inspired by (and built around) an interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Further illustration of why he was chosen to host the new series of Cosmos since what he's talking about is very similar to Sagan's words from the original that we are all star stuff. Oh yeah, and music is by Cinematic Orchestra.

Pretty good week, I guess. Too busy by half but a bit of all right overall. We had a bit o' snow. Sarah did another live DJ gig and it went well. I was too wiped out to go but I tried to catch some of it streaming (it was a between-sets thing for a local swing band and they were live-streaming the whole evening). Alas, the stream was... well, to say it was sporadic would be over-stating. A lot. I don't think I saw more then 2-3 minutes w/o interruption and more often you could measure the time in seconds. Still, it was nice to be there virtually even just a little bit. And it was a good week at work too. Even a few minor triumphs in the oft-revolting world o' politics.
So, here's some randomness to get us into the weekend.
Chad Orzel has a few thoughts on the latest developments in faster-than-light neutrinos. In general (and I think I've mentioned this before here), I find his blog a good intro to science topics, especially for a non-scientist like me. I need to get around to reading his books.
Expand your vocabulary with this 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Also this

I was reading thru some political blogs and sites this evening when I saw (on TPM, of all places) this amazing story about snow leopards. Nice article -- nothing super in-depth but good introductory stuff. Or updates on the current situation if, like me, your knowledge base mostly comes from a book published in 1978. But, really, it's footage of snow leopards!! In Bhutan, taken by a camera trap. Amazing. Also, how cool are camera traps?

Here's a nice boing² link to a video of scientists explaining why studying evolution is important. What else is there to say other than "here, here" or "what they said." If I think about it too much it just depresses me beyond words that somehow an entire political party in this country (I'm sure you can figure out which one if you think about it for a while) has seemingly dedicated itself to the idea that ignorance is superior to knowledge.
Well, it's too late in the evening to really start drinking heavily now, so instead let's cheer ourselves up with this delightful photo. Which, if nothing else, at least puts lie to the fear that John Flansburgh and John Hodgman were, in fact, becoming the same person.