Irish Trojan in Tennessee

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... an ISS and an Iridium flare!

By Brendan Loy

V, her friend Caleb (of kitten fame) and I just got back from the roof of V and Kristy's high-rise apartment building, where we watched an International Space Station flyover and a magnitude -8 Iridium flare (the brightest possible) within a half-hour of one another. I figure, what better way to celebrate passing the bar than by watching nerdy astronomical phenomena? :)

Here's a shot of the ISS passing Albali:

The squiggly part of the line is a result of the wind rattling the camera early in the 15-second exposure. Full-size version here.

Here's an even squigglier image:

And here's a shot of a blurry V watching the ISS:

As for the Iridium flare, I messed up the timing of my photo and just barely caught the tail end of it:

It was the brightest I've seen, though. Very cool.

Tomorrow night, we have an amazing opportunity to see the magnitude -1.8 Space Station and a magnitude -8 Iridium flare almost intersect in the sky. We'll have to drive a bit east of here, but it'll totally be worth it. Here's a sky map I mashed up, showing the approximate location of the Iridium flare (in red) and the ISS (in blue) during a 15-second window from 7:52:48 PM to 7:53:03 PM:

But that's tomorrow night. For now, I'm off to celebrate my bar passage in a more traditional way... involving, well, a bar. :)

A beautiful afternoon in Denver

By Brendan Loy

Made all the more beautiful by the knowledge that I passed the bar. :) That's the Colorado War Memorial in the foreground, and the State Capitol in the background.

UPDATE: Also, the Rockies are winning. With a win, they'd come home to Denver on Saturday with a 2-0 series lead.

Cue Tom Lehrer

By Brendan Loy

All the world seems in tune on a fall afternoon when we're poisoning pigeons in the park...

Record low ratings for Bush, Congress

By Brendan Loy

A new AP poll says just 31 percent of Americans approve of the job President Bush is doing, and just 22 percent approve of the job Congress is doing. But hey, if you add those numbers together, the total is over 50 percent! Hurrah!

Personally, I'm going to wait to see what the coaches' poll says before passing judgment. You can't trust those AP voters and their East Coast Bias. ... What? Oh. Never mind.

Josh Beckett

By Brendan Loy

is awesome.

CNN Breaking News

By Brendan Loy

A Minnesota judge has rejected Sen. Larry Craig's bid to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from a men's room sex sting arrest.

UPDATE: He still won't resign. At least that's what he says today. Larry Craig's position on whether he's resigning is sort of like the weather in New England, though. If you don't like it, wait five minutes.

I passed the bar!

By Brendan Loy

WOOOOO HOOOOO !!!

P.S. The fact that I passed was actually announced on my blog, by a commenter, almost two hours before I found out myself. LOL! God bless the Internet.

Two Colorado bloggers who've been anxiously counting down to the results, Frustrated Bar Examinee and BlawGirl, also passed. Congrats to them!

P.P.S. The pass rate was 72% overall, and 79% among first-time takers.

Happy birthday, Sputnik!

By JLR

Sputnik, the 184-pound piece of metal that started the space race, celebrates its 50th birthday today.  Here's the official American take on the anniversary.  Of course, even though the Soviets beat us into space, notice who is mentioned the most in NASA's article.

Playoff update

By JLR

For those of you who haven't heard (either you've been living under a rock or have been clouded in a sea of purple Rox fans)... Here are the Division Series updates as of this morning.  All games are on TBS; all times are Eastern (what's the point of posting if I can't show my own east-coast bias?).

01 (game 2 Friday at BOS, 8:30)

0 0  (game 1 today at CLE, 6:30)

1 0 (game 2 today at PHI, 3:00)

0 1 (game 2 today at ARI, 10:00)

Rocky Mountain morning

By Brendan Loy

Back on solid ground

By Brendan Loy

I had a whole row to myself on the plane. That was pretty sweet. Anyway, just landed in Denver. Cubs lost.