itinerary and lucubrations

For those who want to follow along on the map as Rebecca and I (and Becca's mom) travel the Wild Wild West, here's the tentative and gruelling schedule:

Sep 3rd: Fly to Seattle
Sep 4th-6th: in Seattle
Sep 7th: Seattle to Missoula, MT (475 miles)
Sep 8th: Missoula to Yellowstone (Mammoth Hot Springs) (284 miles)
Sep 9th: Within Yellowstone (Old Faithful Inn)
Sep 10th: South through the Grand Tetons to Dinosaur, CO (How can you not stay in a town named Dinosaur?) (395 miles)
Sep 11th: Dinosaur to Mesa Verde (332 miles) [Cortez, CO]
Sep 12th: Cortez to As-Far-As-We-Can-Stand-To-Drive, AZ (400-ish miles)
Sep 13th: AFAWCSTD to LA (400-ish miles)

This won't leave much time for sight-seeing, but the trip is the thing!

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Finally, since it has been announced by someone with more right than I to announce it, I give you Lucubrations Lovecraftian, with the occasional blither from me. It's an experiment, it's Lovecraftian... what could be better than a Lovecraftian experiment?

News round-up of crazy people

Unusual medical case (slightly disturbing pic)

Army soldier court-martialed for aiding Al Qaeda. The interesting thing (to me) is the last line: "Anderson ... was arrested in 1998 for approaching an elementary school toting a rifle and bayonet while on a break from Washington State University." Don't our Armed Forces do background checks before letting people in and teaching them how to kill people?

Counter-protest at the RNC.

While on the subject of Republicans, a new word combining the salient features of irony and hypocrisy is sorely needed for this news, slowly emerging into the national media:

Republican U.S. Representative Edward L. Schrock of Virginia abruptly resigned, citing unspecified allegations that have "called into question" his ability to serve. Schrock is a notable conservative, having cosponsored the 'Marriage Amendment', banning gay marriage.
As for the unspecified allegations, it seems that Schrock is gay, or has at least been soliciting gay sex on phone dating services.

I promise I'll stop updating

UCLA Alum (Mathematics '27) Fred Whipple died at age 97. During the war, he invented aluminum chaff to confuse enemy radar. In 1950, he proposed the correct idea of the composition of comets as 'dirty snowballs'. Later, he directed the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for two decades.