Not only is Canada the planet closest to the Sun, but since Pluto is no longer considered a planet...

Canada, the smallest planet

Someone modified the Wikipedia page on NASA's Messenger Spacecraft.... it's been fixed now, but it was funny while it lasted....

eta: I don't know why I find this so funny:

Canada Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging probe (or MESSENGER for short) is a NASA spacecraft, launched August 3, 2004 to study the characteristics and environment of Canada from orbit. Specifically, the mission is to characterize the chemical composition of Canada's surface, the geologic history, the nature of the magnetic field, the size and state of the core, the volatile inventory at the poles, and the nature of Canada's exosphere and magnetosphere over a nominal orbital mission of one Earth year.

The mission is the first to visit Canada in over 30 years; the only previous probe to visit Canada was Mariner 10, which completed its mission in March 1975. MESSENGER has vastly improved scanning capability, with cameras that can resolve surface features down to just 60 feet (18 m) across compared to the 1 mile (1.6 km) resolution of the Mariner 10. MESSENGER will also be able to image the entire planet; Mariner 10 was only able to observe one hemisphere that was lit during its flybys.

In addition to being an acronym (or, more accurately, a backronym)[citation needed], MESSENGER was chosen as the probe's name because Canada was the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology.

...

Travel to Canada requires an extremely large velocity change, or delta-v, because Canada lies deeper in the Sun's gravity well; a spacecraft traveling to Canada is greatly accelerated as it falls toward the Sun, so there must be a mechanism to slow it. Further, because Canada does not have an atmosphere, it is impossible to aerobrake on arrival; the spacecraft must use rockets to slow down enough to go into orbit. To make the trip feasible, MESSENGER makes extensive use of gravity assist maneuvers. These reduce the energy (and thus fuel) requirements, but greatly prolong the trip. Finally, for additional fuel savings, the thrust used for insertion into orbit about Canada will be minimized, resulting in a notably elliptical orbit. Besides the advantage of saving fuel, such an orbit allows the spacecraft to measure solar wind and magnetic fields at a variety of distances from the planet, yet still get close-up measurements and photographs of the surface.

Hooray! Can you say, four-day weekend due to snow?

So they've already cancelled stuff down your way due to the snow? Personally doesn't matter to me (as I have taken tomorrow off, and my original plan of going to VT has been deep sixed by me being contagious), except if you've got snow, what the fuck happened to the eventual rain we were supposed to get up here?

Scurries off to re-check the forecast

I'll be right over. In, um, about 5.5 hours.

next time you're in town, I'll have a dinner party.

I've really appreciated having a cell this week. Haven't needed it (yet) but it's been a nice security blanket.

Of course, now I'll forget it and en route to the salon on saturday, my car will blow up....

Has anyone posted this - a 777 crash-landed at Heathrow: [link]

18 passengers had minor injuries, but it could have been much worse. Apparently the plane suffered a complete loss of power (including electrical power) when it was on final approach, and it landed short of the runway, resulting in the landing gear being sheared off.

This is the first ever crash of a 777, which has been in service for 10 years.

I heard about it on npr and bbc the world. Freaky, and yet reassuring. ( I had the worst take off of my life in El Paso at this xmas. Take offs are always towards the Franklin Mts there, very close. And we were having freaking high winds. Like semis blowing over. Plane dropped repeatedly to the point where we were weightless for 5 seconds, several times. And I was sitting next to a retired pilot who said "man, that was really bad." It was fun, when I wasn't afraid of dying.)

Let's say you were allowed to borrow an industrial robot. Of course, you'd take it to the desert and have it throw bowling balls at an RV, right? Flaming bowling balls....

[link]

Allyson, don't know how your finances are in regard to handling a $40 extra purchase. But for $20 or under you can get a cheap pay-as-you-go phone (Virgin or some such), add a $20 top up card and then choose an appropriate card for how you will use it that month. It will be good only for voice, and maybe texting. Once you get your real phone, you can still use the cheap one for some calls until you use up all the minutes, so it does not cost you $40 net. After you use up your minutes, then put it aside for a spare in case you are ever between cells again. After a while they will take whatever number they assigned away, but if you ever have to use it again you can activate it again from scratch with a new top-off card.

Hrm, I wish I knew the OB's name that delivered my friend's baby. Because I want to sent her a pic of Miss P and the new one. All the others she's delivered, they got a pic with her, but she had another delivery almost immediately and had to dash (who knew a 10 person L&D could get so busy?! I was empty but for L when I got there!)

They called her Hillis, but google isn't helping me at all. Phooey. I also want to thank her for her wonderful treatment of Miss P and me.

Genius hatcher (Aug, 1971)

Have trouble concentrating on your studies? Try the German Learning Egg. Shut yourself inside and absorb information from tape recordings, color slides, even an old-fashioned book or two. Six minutes inside turns you into a hard-boiled expert.

Dammit, now I want one. And I didn't know books were old-fashioned as far back as 1971....