Ned Wright

Non-SQUARE pixels could be a very broad category, sort of like a non-DOG animal. Or are they just thinking of oblong pixels?

Plot from Dessler & Russell (ads bibcode: 1980EOSTr..61..690D) showing estimated mass of Pluto in Earth masses on the y-axis (logarithmic) and the year of the estimate on the x-axis.

On 18 Feb 1930 Tombaugh saw Pluto jumping in his blink comparator, far fainter than expected.

In 1980 a spoof paper by Dessler & Russell plotted the shrinking mass estimates vs time & predicted Pluto would vanish in 1984, but it survived to be demoted by the IAU in 2006.

During my tenure on Observatory Hill (1970-1976) CPG, though long retired, was a frequent presence in the halls and talks. I distinctly recall her statement that "3 out of every 2 stars is a binary".

102 minutes of perfect cinema- This could be the start of a beautiful friendship

Bearded balding man with glasses wearing a UC Ten Meter Telescope t-shirt

Wearing this historical artifact while watching another: Casablanca on KCET

Man holding a sign

Back of sign says Christ: love, forgiveness, mercy, truth, peace & happiness Trump: hate, vengeance, greed, lies, fear & anxiety

Seen at the Bernie/AOC rally in DTLA: sign says TRUMP IS THE ANTICHRIST
Back side is a bill of particulars
This tracks

Bearded man with a mug from the Warren for President campaign

Morning coffee

I also was a Post delivery boy on my bike.

The spelling bee @nytimes.com - the iPhone app - just erased the 62 words I had found.
Why don’t they have any quality control?

Just checked the sky: I won't see the Starlink launch from Vandenberg tonight. Too cloudy.

Panorama of the reservoir

Last Sunday I walked up to the vacant lot overlooking the reservoir. The dirt parts of the old driveway were dry enough a week after the New Year’s rains.

The @nytimes.com spelling bee is not properly recording progress again

Very dark background with 2 rocket stages

Saw the SpaceX launch from Vandenberg this AM.
It was too early to get sunlight on the exhaust trail so just the rocket flames.
Second stage on the left, booster doing boost back burn on right.
This carried the Pandora mission in the Pioneer program of NASA plus many other satellites.

Wall thermostat showing 73 F current temperature

I checked my office in the closed UCLA campus and it’s a toasty 73 F

Wave on the shore with feet in the water

Toes in the Pacific 2026
Also another green flash

ABC news on Youtube was running 45 sec late!

Happy New years Eastern time!

UCLA's campus is closed Dec 24 thru Jan 4, so my accomplishments lie elsewhere:

rewatched The Santa Clause
cooked food for 11 guests who all canceled due to rain on 12/24
rewatched The Muppet Christmas Carol
saw the green flash on 12/27

Not a foggy Xmas eve but a very rainy one here in LA.
Our Noche Buena dinner for 15 collapsed to only the folks staying in our house - 4 in all.

Screenshot of NYT

Donald J Trump is the child of an immigrant and is definitely a problem so I agree with Stephen Goering Miller?

Here in LA the solstice came at 7 AM on 21 Dec 2025. The Sun reached the southernmost part of its path around the ecliptic, so in the Northern Hemisphere days will start to to lengthen. While today is the shortest day, the earliest sunset was 4 Dec 2025 & the latest sunrise will be 7 Jan 2026.

White towel with 2 screws & 2 dozen nails

Tire poppers I took off the boulevard on my morning walk Saturday

Ten nails on gray background

Copper colored disk with a silvery rim in a crack in rough pavement. Close inspection shows it to be a penny.

Found at the side of the boulevard yesterday and today. Spilled nails and a very experienced penny.

Panorama over a reservoir with my shadow in the right foreground

Belated post of a post Thanksgiving panorama from a vacant lot at the end of the next street up. Great view of the reservoir. It’s for sale for millions but you’ll need millions more for engineering.

ISS is the little streak in the center. Dark tree on the left against a blue sky brightening in the dawn.

Mercury is the “star” in the center. Dark trees to the right and dark hills below. Dawn sky is blue on top shading to brighter near the horizon.

Up early to see the ISS moving through the sky from SW to NE. I noticed Mercury was up in the ESE so I looked at it too. As usual Mercury is pretty bright compared to most stars but seen against a bright sky close to the Sun. Left pic is ISS, right pic is Mercury.

My @nytimes.com troubles continue:
words found in the spelling bee on the iPhone app are not recorded but at least the webpage works OK.

Stories on the athletic disappear in less than a second on the iPhone app and do't appear at all on the webpage.

The app has been borked for more than a week.

Dark trees standing before a blue sky with a band of red clouds on the horizon

Sunrise before the earliest sunset of the year at the latitude of LA.

16 pro max, and what doesn't work is the recording of your progress. Try leaving the spelling bee page and returning. For me this resets the word count down to zero. I even got to Queen Bee, got the congrats page, but the statistics page did not increment.

The NY Times iPhone app is still broken: the spelling bee doesn’t record progress and the Athletic stories won’t display 12/2/2025

Neighbor’s house with tree on left and booster to right of tree

Second stage below Moon with trees below

Space-X launch of Starlink’s 12/1/2025 from Vandenberg as seen from my house. Booster in first picture, staging behind tree, then second stage in second picture.