So what do the astronauts do in the off time on the International Space Station? Governmentattic.org has come up with a list of books, movies, music, etc., on the ISS (Adobe Acrobat file).

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Pyramids; Terry Pratchett (HarperTorch, 2001, ISBN 978-0-06-10265-0; cover artist not known).

Pteppic (or Teppic) has a problem. He's escaped from the trap of being part of a dynasty, has spent years training to be an assassin, and had just passed his final exam with the Assassins Guild in the city of Ankh-Morpork when the call comes to return home. His father, the king, has died. He must take his place on the throne!

Back to Djelibeybi (ignore the "D") he goes where he is caught in endless rituals, a life rigidly controlled by the seemingly ageless Dios, high priest of all high priests. There's a handmaiden, Ptraci (or Traci). Or is she his aunt? And how does a camel get involved in higher mathematics?

Toss in a whole string of restless undead, a dimensional accident, pyramid power, and Death (strangely enough, one of the most popular characters in the series) and you have another fun romp on the back of the turtle.

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Highly recommended and on PBS this week (sorry for the late notice): Carrier.

This 10-hour documentary follows a six-month deployment of the U.S.S. Nimitz, ">CVN-68. This is not Top Gun, this is a realistic, honest, excellent look at all levels of the ship, from the air wings to the guys who clean the toilets. It is not glamorous, it doesn't spin too far to the positive or the negative. This is what "reality television" never even gets close to being.

I was in the Army, not the Navy, but this is a very good depiction of the "rough men" who protect us while we sleep.

A darn fine effort. A DVD will be out in May; I've already put in a pre-order.

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An analysis of how best to survive your deployment on the U.S.S. Enterprise.

The red-shirt survival rate is slightly higher when Kirk meets women than when a fight breaks out. This trend necessitates the question: How often did Captain Kirk "meet" women? In 30% of the missions.

As the data shows, Captain Kirk "making contact" with alien women has an impact on the crew's survival. The red-shirt death rate is higher when a fight breaks out than when Kirk meets a woman and a fight breaks out. Yet the analysis shows that meeting Kirk meeting women only happens in 30% of the missions.

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John A. Wheeler, a physicist who sparked his students with the force of metaphor, and who gave us such terms as "black hole" and "many worlds" has moved into another world.

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Well, yesterday I turned 40.

I suppose my advanced age could excuse the lamentable lack of my posting?

Eh, didn't think so.

More later. Maybe.

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You never know what you'll find on the intertubes. A detailed history of Jonathan Quayle Higgins, for all love!

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NASA has launched (har har) a new website dedicated to showing its work in the various fields of science.

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The course for the Phoenix Mars Lander has been fine-tuned. Landing is expected for May 25, 2008. The landing area has been named "Green Valley."

The landing area is an ellipse about 62 miles by about 12 miles (100 kilometers by 20 kilometers). Researchers have mapped more than five million rocks in and around that ellipse, each big enough to end the mission if hit by the spacecraft during landing. Knowing where to avoid the rockier areas, the team has selected a scientifically exciting target that also offers the best chances for the spacecraft to set itself down safely onto the Martian surface.

Ouch. Who got to count all those rocks?

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"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it."

(Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1)

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"Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilise the blood brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders."

Daily caffeine protects the brain? Works for me! Does this mean I can write off my daily intake on my taxes as a health cost?

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One of my life goals has been attained.

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Fred's Reading Report (March 200

It was the best of times...oh, never mind!

Reading was impacted by a temporary increase in hours worked. So, I feel like I have not done as well as the first two months of the year.

Books read: 7. Bourdain...A Cook's Tour. O'Brian...Master & Commander. Pournelle...The Endless Frontier, Volume 1. Ramsay...Roasting in Hell's Kitchen. Ringo...The Last Centurion. Ringo...Princess of Wands. Whittemore...Quin's Shanghai Circus.

134 short works read. Goal for the year 365; goal for month, to reach 91; goal for next month...121 (so I'm ahead for the year, so far!)

Current reads, on deck, on Mount Toberead...I'm increasingly shuffling the piles, so it is easier just to list what is finished rather than what is being read!

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John's Reading Report (March 200

Over the past month I have finished:

Flashman, George MacDonald Fraser. Not sure I've made up my mind whether I liked this or not. It was a fairly easy read.

The Forever War, Joe Haldeman. An interesting contrast to Heinlein's Starship Troopers or John Scalzi's Old Man's War.

In progress:

Virtual Light, William Gibson. I have neglected Gibson for the last 15 years or so. Time to catch up.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett.

On deck:

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemerovsky.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, Carl Zimmer.

Idoru, William Gibson.

Spook Country, William Gibson.

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It's back! It's up!

As Others Research Us. 'I've always been a fan of H.G. Wells, the 19th/20th century British sci-fi author. You know, he's the guy who penned such classics as "The War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine" and my personal favorite, "1984."' (Greg Bucci, city editor, Mohave Valley Daily News, 13 March) [MRL]

I'm always amazed at the stuff he finds.

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Following up on this posting, here's what has been on the playlist to date (future entries will only be for a single month!).

Unless I'm on an extended drive, I've been using the "shuffle" feature more on the iPod. After a couple of weeks of doing this, I changed the contents to remove the classical pieces that I had loaded. Too many of them are linked, at least in my mind, so listening to them as an occasional random bit did not work.

I'm still puzzled by how the iPod chooses songs in shuffle mode. On occasion, two songs by one artist will play back-to-back. One day I heard about a dozen songs on the commute and exactly half of them were all by Sting. Other albums have not been touched at all during three months. Very weird.

(WhatÂ’s amazing to look at the list is not so much as how much music I listened too...but how much music is still in the collection that I have not gotten to!)

(Does not include audiobooks, podcasts and the like.)

On to the selections. In some cases the whole album was heard, in other cases I'll still be hearing bits and pieces in the future. more...

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