There’s a lengthy profile of Philip Seymour Hoffman in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.
Day: December 20, 2008
Best line of the day, so far
“Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient.”
President-elect Barack Obama
Solstice at Newgrange
Tomorrow’s solstice marks the southernmost point of the Sun’s annual motion through planet Earth’s sky and the astronomical beginning of winter in the north. In celebration of the northern winter solstice and the International Year of Astronomy 2009, you can watch a live webcast of the the solstice sunrise from the megalithic tomb of Newgrange, in County Meath, Ireland. Newgrange dates to 5,000 years ago, much older than Stonehenge, but also with accurate alignments to the solstice Sun. In this view from within the burial mound’s inner chamber, the first rays of the solstice sunrise are passing through a box constructed above the entrance and shine down an 18 meter long tunnel to illuminate the floor at the foot of a decorated stone. The actual stone itself would have been directly illuminated by the solstice Sun 5,000 years ago. The long time exposure also captures the ghostly figure of a more modern astronomer in motion. To watch the live webcast follow the indicated link below. The webcast is planned to go live at 0830 coordinated Universal Time (for example, at 3:30am Eastern Time in the US) tomorrow, Sunday, the 21st.
Astronomy Picture of the Day has all the links and the photo described above.
Winter in the northern hemisphere begins at 5:04 AM Sunday Mountain Standard Time.
It’s always interesting to locate in relation to neighborhood landmarks where the sun rises and/or sets on the day of the December solstice and then compare those locations to the same events in June.
Louisiana Territory
The French colors were lowered and the American flag raised in New Orleans on this date in 1803, signifying the transfer of sovereignty of Louisiana from France to the United States. Arguably the transfer was one of the two or three most defining moments in American history.
As ultimately defined, Louisiana Territory included most of the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, east of the Rocky Mountains, except for Texas and New Mexico; that is, parts or all of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.
Football national champions
The Richmond Spiders defeated the Montana Grizzlies 24-7 Friday evening to win the national championship of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Richmond finished the season 13-3, Montana 14-2.
It’s Richmond’s first national championship in football. They defeated three-time defending national champion Appalachian State in the quarter finals. Montana has won the national championship twice; this was their fourth time as national runner-up.
Sixteen teams competed in the FCS playoffs, which began November 29th. There are 122 FCS schools.
Meanwhile back in the Bowl Championship Subdivision, Saturday will feature BYU 10-2, Navy 8-4, four teams that are 7-5, and a couple of teams that are 6-6 in four meaningless bowl games.
Richmond is the alma mater of Byron, one of the two official sons-in-law of NewMexiKen.