This collection of entries is from February 25, 2003.
I got a press release from NASA today that says that Pioneer 10 may have gasped its last breath. Now, mind you, it was launched March 2, 1972, on a 21-month mission to study Jupiter. I don't know if you remember this, but it has a gold plaque on the side of it with a message and a map showing where earth is (if I remember correctly, astronomer Carl Sagan has a lot to do with the design of the message). So, it scooted out of the solar system some time ago. Considering that it was on a 21-month mission, the satellite just stopped sending good data telemetry back on April 27 last year. Not bad for a satellite that's over 30 years old. So basically, NASA just kept tuning-in to see if it could still hear it. The last time they heard a signal (very faint) was on January 23 when it was 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, taking 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive. It's the farthest human artifact from earth. What a trip.
Ever have a song stuck in your head? You know, rattling around in there, playing over and over and over and you can't get rid of it? There was a study that was released at the Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference in New Orleans. The phenomenon is called an "earworm" in Germany, which actually sort of makes sense. The item that I found most disturbing is that "Episodes of earworms also tend to strike people with neurotic tendencies more often." That sort-of doesn't make me feel any better about this stupid Kylie Minogue song that's rattling around inside of my head right now...
Had my first experience away from the office this morning. I had to drive into the city to visit one of our doctors to swap-out her laptop. It was interesting to see what one of the office locations looks like. In this particular case, everything was a little tight - they were doing a lot of stuff in a relatively small space. The swap went well - the doctor was actually nice and cordial. Too bad she didn't copy her stuff off of her old machine before I got there. So, instead of a quick trip, I had to hump her stuff up the network, swap machines, and hump it back down. Let's just say I spent a lot of time drinking coffee and looking out her window - which wasn't all that bad. The office is location is on the "fringes" of my old neighborhood in the city. I should have called my mom and told her I'd be over for lunch!