Archive of entries posted on 23rd January 2020

Thursday Night Open Thread

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Declan Patrick MacManus is a talented musician. But, I never really cared for his stage name: Elvis Costello. It wasn’t his idea, actually. He was calling himself D. P. Costello and his manager suggested “Elvis” as a first name.

I never really dislikes his stuff, and actually did buy some of his stuff, but not a lot. He was alright. Or is, I should say. He’s still performing.

[The YouTube]

What’s been on your mind? Got something you’d like to share? A topic to discuss? It’s Thursday Night Open Thread.

Who wants to start?

Straight Line of the Day: The Magnetic North Pole Is Moving Toward Siberia. Scientists Speculate…

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Straight Line of the Day: The Magnetic North Pole is moving toward Siberia. Scientists speculate…

The team of researchers that maintain the World Magnetic Model (WMM) has updated it and released it a year ahead of schedule due to the speed with which the pole is moving. The newly updated model shows the magnetic north pole moving away from Canada and toward Siberia.

The magnetic north pole is the point on the Earth that compasses designate as true north. It is the result of geological processes deep within the planet — molten iron flow creates a magnetic field with poles near the geographic North and South Poles. But unlike the geographic poles, the magnetic poles can move -— and the magnetic north pole has been moving faster in recent years . . .

It is currently not known why the poles drift. Some have suggested it is due to an underground jet stream of sorts. Nor is the mechanism driving them understood. They were only discovered in 1831 -— since that time, both poles have been tracked, and the speed at which they move recorded. The north magnetic pole has traveled 1,400 miles since it was first discovered -— and has changed speed, as well. As recently as 2000, the speed was clocked at 10 km/year. The latest readings show it moving at a brisk 50 km/year.

Terry Jones

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Terry Jones (AP photo)

I was saddened to learn yesterday of the passing of Terry Jones, most famous as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. I thought about posting a video of one or more of his performances as part of Monty Python (every nude organist appearance, anyone?), or an excerpt from his wonderful history videos (Terry Jones, gladiator?). Instead, I’m going to get a little personal, with an excerpt a post from my blog in 2016:

I met him, sort of, in Atlanta a year or two ago. Yes, it was at DragonCon, but I didn’t see him in a panel. I ran into him walking down a street in Atlanta.

I was on Courtland, walking toward the Sheraton for an event — or to wait in a long line for an event. And Terry Jones was coming the other way, toward the Hilton/Marriott area, walking at a fairly brisk pace. I saw him when I was about, oh, 20 or 30 feet away. I knew I was reacting to seeing him, but lost all control of my facial features.

I could feel the smile spreading across my face and I knew my eyes were opening wide, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I mean, it was Terry Jones.

He noticed. He looked me in the eye and grinned. As we passed, I said, “Good afternoon, Mr. Jones.” Only it probably came out something like “derp durr hurr.”

I so wanted to shake his hand, to hear him speak, but he had somewhere he was going, and there were opportunities to see him in panels and at autograph sessions. I regret not scheduling something like that.

I mentioned his historical videos earlier. As much as I enjoyed him in Monty Python (a lot), I loved the historical videos. They were always fun and always informative. I think I’ll spend the next few days watching all I can find. And missing Terry Jones.