Steve Irwin Tribute

Animal Planet aired the Steve Irwin Tribute show last night (Tuesday September 19th, 2006). It was at the main croc enclosure (Crocoseum) at Australia Zoo, a mix of eulogies, taped tributes by media personalities, clips of Steve in action, and live music.

I know it doesn't sound all that great from my poor description, but it was probably the best send-off/tribute/funeral-type-thing I've even seen televised. I watched in bed, dampness in my eyes (Keli was sniffling too). It was sad, yet uplifting. Lighthearted, even comedic, yet deeply serious.

I won't describe the details, you can go here for an ozzy paper review with details the tribute service, just the thoughts I had about the service.

• It was incredibly well produced. Someone put a lot of time and effort into producing it and they did an amazing job. Good on ya mate!
• Bindi (Steve and Terri's nine-year-old daughter) gave a great (and quite deep) send off to her father. No hesitation, no umming and ahing. The kid has talent, and maybe quite a future taking over from Steve?

I kept wondering why didn't I feel like it was cheezy, superficial and painful-to-watch, like so many other stage-managed memorial services? I think it must be that the feelings expressed by the people who knew Steve were so sincere. It was clear they felt deeply, sorrowful, yet the viewer could relate to how much they'd enjoyed knowing Steve. Maybe that you were also feeling the same things, the bittersweet mix pleasure of remembering the Steve you enjoyed watching with the pain of loss. Someone said people like the croc hunter because he was so clearly himself on camera that you felt you really knew him, that he was your friend.

Bah, I can't explain it. Just watch it if you have the opportunity and if you liked watching the croc-hunter, you'll feel better for it.

Switch over to Beta Blogger

I've switched this blog over to Google's "beta" version of the new blogger service. Some nice drag-and-drop layout options, and of course the labels feature. Expect more cosmetic changes to the blog in the next few days.

There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party.

Remember the flap a while back about a unqualified (but Bush-loyal) hack at NASA editing press-releases and denying the press interview with climate scientists? Merely a bad-apple, you might say, not part of a deliberate and concerted effort to weaken and sideline science.

Well, this time it seems the plausible deniability is wearing thin. CNBC's request for an interview with NOAO scientist Dr. Tom Knutson gets vetted by none-other than Commerce department press secretary Chuck Fuqua...

"What is Knutson's view on global warming vs. decadal cycles?" Fuqua asked his subordinate.

He's "a bit of a different animal" than the higher-ups at the NOAA, the aide responded.

"Why can't we have one of the other guys on then?" Fuqua emailed back.

NOAA ultimately denied CNBC the interview.

The ever vigilant Henry Waxman (D-CA) is on the case, but until the house and/or senate fall under Democrat control I doubt any investigation will get anywhere.

The "There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party." quote is (of course) from 1984.

Pluto's big cousin: Eris

The IAU has released the official names for the dwarf planet that caused Pluto's downfall: Eris (who in mythology caused a quarrel among the goddesses that lead to the Trojan War. Who says scientists don't have a wry sense of humor?). Eris's large moon is Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris and the spirit of lawlessness (sounds like Bush).


See the IAU resolutions here, or perhaps more the readable BBC news article here.


OK, that's enough blogging about planets for a while.

[Update 07/26/2016: Latest figure show Plut to be slightly larger but Eris to still be more massive]
Eris's properties

Mean radius	1163±6 km[8][9]
Surface area	(1.70±0.02)×107 km2[c]
Volume	(6.59±0.10)×109 km3[c]
Mass	(1.66±0.02)×1022 kg[10] 0.0028 Earths 0.23 Moons

Pluto's properties:

Mean radius	1,187±4 km[5] 0.18 Earths
Flattening	<1 class="reference" id="cite_ref-Stern2015_7-1" sup="">[5]

Surface area

• 1.77×10⁷ km^2[c]
• 0.035 Earths

Volume

• (7.006±0.071)×10⁹ km^3[d]
• 0.00647 Earths

Mass

• (1.303±0.003)×10²² kg^[5]
• 0.00218 Earths
• 0.177 Moons