The Jerks Want Yerkes

james_nicoll reports that the Yerkes Observatory is in danger of being sold off by the University of Chicago to land developers who want to put up McMansions.  Even if they don't demolish the observatory, turniing the land around it into an upscale housing development will probably make it useless for any further astronomical observations.  It's already pretty much crippled through the summer because of glare from the floodlights at a dog track a few miles away.

Rejected Sun ads

Sun Microsystems has this page of "rejected Sun ads", and solicits readers to submit their own headlines.

I couldn't help but think of this:

IF I WANTED TO RUN WINDOWS, I MIGHT CONSIDER BUYING FROM DELL . . .

. . . And if I wanted disaster relief, I might consider calling FEMA.

Or is that too unkind?

And if so ... too unkind to Dell, or to FEMA?

Possible diagnosis

Early indications are that babylon5's recent sudden instability may have been due to a failing DDR333 memory module.  I've pulled it out to check.  The RAM in question was salvaged from the wreckage of whitestar, and is Crucial RAM, so if it has gone bad, I shouldn't have any trouble getting it replaced.

Miraculous breakthrough in Taiwan

New Scientist reports, "99.1% of Taiwanese are at risk of dying from one hazard or another."

This breathless and ill-thought-out headline begs the obvious question:  What amazing secret of immortality do the other 0.9% possess....?