Just saw something impressive: the International Space Station and Shuttle Atlantis passed over San Diego. They were separated by maybe just the width of the moon. I’ve seen a zillion satellites but never two close together like these. The whole thing lasted 50 seconds. As I write this, 15 minutes later, they’re already off the coast of Ecuador.
By consulting the Heavens Above site, I was able to head out to the backyard exactly in time. Tomorrow they’ll pass over again for a brighter and longer view. I’ll be watching.
There are three kinds of people in the world: phone people, email people, and village people who live simple lives in the Third World without ever having heard a ringtone. Me, I’m an email guy. I’m in constant touch with lots of people by mail and mostly use the phone to say no to political push-poll takers.
So last night we went to dinner at a friend’s house. All communication about the meal was done by mail. Here’s the condensed version that took place over a 24 hour period:
Him: Interested in coming over around 6 PM tomorrow for dinner?
Me: Love to. What can we bring?
Him: Excellent. How about a dessert?
Can you and June both do a pasta dish that contains olives, sun-dried
tomatoes, and artichokes?
Me: We can indeed. See you then!
Now, like most human communications, there might be some ambiguity here.
Look over the transcript and tell me what you would have done in my place:
A) Brought a dessert and assumed that the pasta part was left over from an earlier draft of the note
B) Brought a dessert and a pasta dish while puzzling over how specific the requested ingredients were and enjoying our friend’s apparent vision of June and I laboring together over its creation.
C) Picked up the phone and asked for clarity just to make sure.
Choose your answer and then read the first comment to see what happened.
Just saw something impressive: the International Space Station and Shuttle Atlantis passed over San Diego. They were separated by maybe just the width of the moon. I’ve seen a zillion satellites but never two close together like these. The whole thing lasted 50 seconds. As I write this, 15 minutes later, they’re already off the coast of Ecuador.