Los Angeles Times: Leonid Meteor Showers Are Due

A similar show is expected Nov. 19 and could provide better viewing because the waning moon will not interfere as much. Viewers should look toward the eastern horizon between midnight and 2 a.m., said Scott Kardel, public affairs director of Palomar Observatory in San Diego County.

“It’s pretty unlikely we’re going to have a huge outburst,” he said.

The Leonid meteor shower occurs each November when the Earth passes through dust trails shed by the comet Temple-Tuttle, which soars through the inner solar system every 33 years.

For the last four years, Earth has passed directly through fresh dust trails and allowed some viewers to see more than a thousand meteors per hour. This year, the planet only brushes past dust trails that are several centuries old.

If you were skeptical before, well… here’s a reason to have an international space station: awesome photos.

NASA – Station Photographs Hurricane Isabel

NASA – Wildfires Seen From Station

Best of all, they’re royalty-free.

Now you can search the text of books on Amazon. It sorta works. I did a search for “deliverator” and Amazon failed to list Snow Crash in the search results. It did, however, find a reference to the book in another book.

Scientists make electricity from tap water

Cool.

A team of Canadian researchers has found that an electrical current can be produced between the ends of a microscopic channel when a fluid flows through it.

…

A typical setup using a ceramic filter and tap water can produce 10 volts and the current depends on the size of the filter. Since large water pressures are not needed, natural flows of water can be harnessed. These could include tidal water flows, underground aquifers, dammed water, drinking water currently being filtered by utilities companies to improve its clarity, and rain falling from roofs.

Castle Green

Unknown to me, anyway.