Phil, There is an old saying somewhere about stones and glasshouses...
I make no apology for requesting both accuracy AND precision! Indeed my students think I am a @#$!!# pedant. My understanding is that the expression is "nit picking" and derives from the need to remove nits or eggs of head lice from the hair of children. As the eggs are rather small, this is a tedious task (ask any parent who is precisely about my not yet superannuated age of 54!) The mutual grooming that we see with the great apes is another manifestation of this. Serves two purposes: removes the lice and increases bonding. Of course, I am sure that those on the list who also indulge in that wonderfully creative activity of hand knitting will rally to the defence of knit picking, but I will stick with my lice. During a recent fabulous field trip with my graduate students to western New South Wales I was having a rather spirited but fun discussion / argument with one student who sensed that she was backing into a corner and could not argue logically out of it. In desperation she told me that "Not only are you wrong, but you've got cooties!" "Cooties?" "Yes, cooties! Lice!" I broke up laughing. No student has ever raised ad hominem discussions with me to such lofty heights before. At another level I was really pleased. They were a great bunch and if they felt comfortable enough with me that they could insult me like this and I would laugh, then they were obviously enjoying the trip and had a high regard for me. May seem strange to a non-Australian, but that's how many things work here. ELECTRIC ASTROLABE I took my notebook on the trip to demonstrate some software to the students, and one of the programs was Electric Astrolabe. Blew them away. WOW! We set it up for the field location and left it running in real time and looked at the heavens. Predicted that Mars would be up in a few minutes, and sure enough, up he came. We identified a whole bunch of constellations and stars using it. Those of you have haven't downloaded it should try it. The zip files are easy to handle and it is easy to get it running. Setting up the actual location was a bit trickier and as I have told Jim, it has a strange idea about Australian daylight saving. (Don't worry Jim, there are three DSTs operating in Australia each summer! Even we locals get confused and have no idea of the real time when we move across the country!) CONGRATULATIONS TO JIM! GREAT PIECE OF SOFTWARE! Of course, I still have not worked out how to use more than a fraction of its power, but as a teaching aid, it is brilliant! That's all for now folks, I have to retreat to nit picking with a load of assignments I have to mark. Hmm, I wonder why me head is so itchy??? John
