Quote of the morning

"... robots have nerves of steel."

–a NASA official interviewed on NPR this morning, describing how the Spirit landing on Mars was not quite as had been planned...

Science experiment

1. Buy large cans of crushed tomatoes in the fall.
   
2. Put cans in car.
   
3. Move cans to trunk in process of clearing car for multi-person use.
   
4. Forget about cans until in the midst of the second (or third) arctic cold snap of the winter.
   
5. Retrieve cans.
   
6. Admire frost patterns on lid.
   
7. Run briefly under hot water.
   
8. Open can.
   
9. Observe tomato sludge: thicker than regular crushed tomatoes (since still mostly frozen), and mostly lacking texture.
   
10. Use somewhat thawed edges of tomato mass on pizza.
    
11. Observe and hear ice crystals still in tomato sludge an hour later.

---

It was hard to get the car started this morning (heck, if I'd slept outside last night, I'd be more than just sluggish this morning), and it took a while until the gear shift moved as usual. It's odd to feel the difference in the shifting, the difference between a quick, crisp move and a slower-than-molasses one requiring more force. (No comments about the molasses flood necessary, thanks.)

---

I tend to like non-traditional sentences, when they make sense (er, in the court system; no comment on writing style). A drunk driver talking on a cell phone who killed a guy and put his pregnant wife into a coma she hasn't come out of (the kid is being raised by relatives), was sentenced to 30 days in jail, and probation, and she has to carry a picture of the deceased for five years. Makes it harder to ignore the consequences of one's actions. (I assume there will be a civil suit as well. That poor kid.)

---

Does it bother anyone else when Shrub says that his proposed 3-year work-visa program is so we can treat people with dignity, while still not only detaining people without charge after 9/11, but not letting their names be given, or anything? I don't trust his government with any of the powers they've managed to grab, at all.

And I'm not even going to start on unfunded mandates, like the No Child Left Behind Act. He still believes it's not a problem if all teachers do is teach to the (standardized) test. Gah.