babbling blue

Fifteen years after Jupiter was first struck by pieces of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, it was again hit by “another object”. Unlike SL 9, this impact was not expected and in fact was spotted by an amateur astronomer in Australia. Astronomers don’t yet know what hit the planet.

Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark “scar” had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact.

See here for the full story and an infrared image.

After walking in the rain to get home, I got on my PC and saw that I still had weather.com open from this morning. This is what it showed for the 36 hour outlook:

First, I would describe the weather for much of the afternoon as partly cloudy at best, mostly cloudy at worst. Second, you may have caught that I walked home in the rain. And may I direct you to the chance of precipitation in the above image? Ten percent is almost as close as they get (I’ve seen 0% but it’s pretty rare) to saying “It’s not gonna rain.” Fortunately I had my umbrella with me for other nefarious reasons, so I stayed fairly dry.

So really, when it comes to predicting the weather it’s just a guessing game. I’ve lost count of how many times the day’s forecast in the morning has been wrong. I rarely bother to look at long term forecasts since I could do just as well with a deck of weather tarot cards.

Other posts in which I bitch about the same damn thing:
The Wonderful Windy City
Why Bother?
Your Spring is showing

The Sears Tower is officially renamed to Willis Tower today. Fuck that, man. It has always been and always will be the Sears Tower.

101 Muppets of Sesame Street | National Post.

This brings me back to my childhood. Which wasn’t that long ago…

I don’t know how reputable this source is, so take it with a grain of salt, but:

Over the last few days, I have received communication from people inside Google regarding layoffs, deep staff cuts and harsh working conditions.
…
Apparently, Google is laying off a large number of sub-contracted employees and full-time employees that manage those contractors. The layoffs are taking place in Seattle, WA and Kirkland, WA. Further, entire offices are being closed in Michigan and Texas with all employees getting laid off.

If this is true, it’s interesting. From here.