And while with lifting mind...

Last Sunday, early risers in Pagosa were greeted with this sight, looking toward the Divide:



There had been some speculation that the event would have to be cancelled, owing to the FAA edict that was still in effect a few days prior to the event, banning balloon flights, but I think reason prevailed in time for the mass flight to occur.

I've been catching up on paperwork this morning. I sent both outstanding expense reports (whew!), among other achievements (small, I know, but mine own). I still haven't started on the translation, but it should offer no particularly significant obstacles (acceptance test reports are rarely complicated, unless the result is a failure, but I digress...)

Feht is being called to Houston, but not to work with my usual client. He'll be by later to borrow the Toshiba laptop to take with him in order to finish a job he's already working on, for someone else entirely. I'd hoped he'd be going a few days from now, which would place both of us in Houston at the same time, in a prime position to go eat sushi and exchange outrageous opinions after work for several days. Who knows? Maybe we'll still be able to connect while I'm down there.

Got to get back to work.

Cheers....

Can you say gigaton?

The following image was taken by the extreme ultraviolet imaging telescope today, at 19:19 UT (about 1:19 pm MDT). In this photo, the bright areas are at between 60,000 and 80,000 degrees Kelvin. More information can be found on the SOHO page. (SOHO stands for "Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.").


(There's nothing ominous about this photo; I just happen to like it. Two other images on the Soho page show what solar activity is taking place in temperature ranges in the millions of degrees.)

Yesterday, at about 10:00 UT, a major explosion occurred on the Sun, throwing about a billion tons of stuff out toward our planet at over a million miles per hour. Low-latitude aurorae and communication and power disruptions are likely.

Best time to look for the aurora borealis will be after midnight, apparently.

Cheers...