I like crossword puzzles....

I'm not one of those record-breaking NY Times crossword solvers. I just like to do the occasional puzzle.

One form available uses the Across Lite software from litsoft.com. The two week repository here is in the Across Lite format.

Some sites make PDFs of their crosswords available. For example, http://www.brainsonly.com/servlets-newsday-crossword/newsdaycrosswordPDF?pm=pdf&puzzle=1101151&data=%3CNAME%3E110115%3C%2FNAME%3E%3CTYPE%3E1%3C%2FTYPE%3E. In the URL here, the pertinent things to change are puzzle=xxxxxxx and data=%3CNAME%3Exxxxxx and %3CTYPE%3E1%3C%2FTYPE%3E. The format for the "puzzle=xxxxxxx" is YYMMDDx. If the number 1 is used at the end, a blank grid and clues are pulled up. If the number 2 is used at the end, the grid, clues and solution are pulled up as a PDF. The data=%3CNAME%3Exxxxxx portion should match the date string (YYMMDD) used previously. The last element is %3CTYPE%3E1%3C%2FTYPE%3E. If you're using 1 to download the clues and grid, this part will look like %3CTYPE%3E1%3C%2FTYPE%3E. If you're downloading the clues, grid and solution, this becomes %3CTYPE%3E2%3C%2FTYPE%3E. As an example, here's the resulting URL for the New Year's Day puzzle and solution:

http://www.brainsonly.com/servlets-newsday-crossword/newsdaycrosswordPDF?pm=pdf&puzzle=1101012&data=%3CNAME%3E110101%3C%2FNAME%3E%3CTYPE%3E2%3C%2FTYPE%3E

I've got my machine set to download the puzzle from http://www.chron.com/apps/games/xword/puzzles/ every day. The first thing I used for that is a program for Windows (originally *nix) called wget. Here's one place to get wget for Windows. After you've got wget, you need to create and schedule something like a batch file. Here's what mine looks like (the italic part):

@echo off
echo %%date%% = %date%


for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=/ " %%i in ("%date%") do (
set dow=%%i
set month=%%j
set day=%%k
set year=%%l
)

wget "http://www.chron.com/apps/games/xword/puzzles/today.puz" -O chron/chron.com_%month%-%day%-%year%.puz

I typed all that into Notepad and saved it as chron.bat. Be sure to save it named *.bat and set the "Save as type" to "all files". That's if you're using Windows Notepad. Save this batch file in the same directory where the executable file for wget is located. From there, all that remains is to set this batch file up as a recurring task using Windows Task Scheduler. Mine runs daily.

A big whopping two items regarding Browns Ferry at the NRC's site since last week...

ML110110010 - Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Units 1, 2 And 3 - Email - Acceptance of Requested Licensing Action Re: Request To Extend Completion Time For TS 3.8.1 Required Action B.4.(TAC No(S). ME5036-8).

ML110130390 - Annual Letter - Generic Fundamentals Examination (GFE) Section .

If you're interested in finding info regarding that nuke plant in your backyard, here's how:

Go to http://wba.nrc.gov:8080/ves/. You'll need the docket number for whatever facility you're interested in. Once you're at the Web-Based ADAMS page, click on the "Advanced Search" tab. You can then use the Query and Query Builder on the left hand side of the advanced search page to find what you're looking for. Here's the query I used for documents for Browns Ferry since last week:

e_create_date:{01/08/2011 TO *} Docket_Number:(05000259* OR 05000260* OR 05000296*)

For a list of power reactors throughout the US (click on the facility to find the docket number), click here. Questions? Here's the Web-based ADAMS user guide.

10 years of Wikipedia, JFK Library going digital, NASA's missions

Happy tenth birthday, Wikipedia!

It was announced yesterday that the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is undertaking an initiative to start digitizing a large volume of JFK-related material. Here are the beginnings of that initiative...

I was reading a story about NASA's Glory mission and got to thinking about what other missions NASA is still involved in and what's coming up. Here are the current missions and here are the ones to come.

Antimatter from thunderstorms?

I was checking out various information that I've set Google Reader to cull (via RSS feeds) and saw a story about thunderstorms hurling antimatter back into space. Here's the NASA release. I had noticed that a friend from the Navy posted this yesterday and upon closer reading, I realized that it also involved someone from UAH recently presenting the findings at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle....

THOMAS Top Ten for 1/9/2011 - THOMAS (Library of Congress)

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/topten/topten_20110109.html

Top ten legislative items searched on THOMAS, compiled on 1/9/2011 from weekly usage statistics

1. H.R. 4853 [111th]
   Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010
    
2. H.R. 3082 [111th]
   Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
    
3. H.R. 2751 [111th]
   FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
    
4. H.R. 6523 [111th]
   Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011
    
5. H.R. 3590 [111th]
   Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
    
6. H.R. 847 [111th]
   James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010
    
7. H.R. 2 [112th]
   Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act
    
8. H.R. 4173 [111th]
   Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
    
9. S. 1435 [111th]
   Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009
    
10. H.R. 5136 [111th]
    National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011

I don't do a lot of reposts, but it had been a while since I used the tool I am mentioning. If nothing else, this is like a bookmark and memory jogger for me...

I had a few PDFs on-hand that I wanted to back up but save on my local machine as text files. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest (and cheapest) way was to get Xpdf from here. One utility program included with Xpdf is pdftotext. I then had to figure out a way to use pdftotext to convert my files in one big batch. Here's what I did. First, I dragged the few hundred desired files to the directory where pdftotext.exe was located. Next, I used the command prompt (under Vista, Start->Run->cmd) dir to make a list of all the PDF files in the same directory (dir *.pdf /b > list). As for batching the file conversion, I then used the FOR command included with the cmd program. Here's the applicable syntax:

for /F %i in (list) DO pdftotext %i

Worked like a champ!

Snow

A picture of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in the 1-10-11 snow (Nuclear winter?)

I read a piece on salon.com the other day regarding the USDOJ subpoena of Twitter for records and information relating to several folks associated with Wikileaks. In the story (from 1/7/11), Greenwald mentions "I'll have much more on the implications of this tomorrow." The resulting story on salon.com was posted today. I read through this piece and one additional (earlier last year) link from it. Regarding the additional piece, I understand that "the list" and its permissions to eliminate certain individuals have some necessity. However, my feelings are that an administration that was so anti-Bush doctrine should be absolutely clear that apprehension is the more desirable outcome. If nothing else, we can't extract info from the dead yet. So much for "change"...

Municode, Mars Rovers, homepage changing for loc.gov, and more...

When I had to bury my kitty, I wondered if it was cool to bury her in the yard. I quickly discovered (via the Athens, AL city website) municode.com. Check here to see if your town's municipal codes are listed...

Spirit and Opportunity: When the two Mars Rovers were launched in 2004, they were supposed to go for at least 90 Martian days. Opportunity is still going fairly strong. Contact has been lost with Spirit since March 22, 2010 (2210 days into its mission). NASA is still trying.

There are some amazing things to be seen in the cosmos. I thought this was a pretty cool picture.

If you are anything like me (hopefully not, for your sakes), you might border on being an information junkie. One excellent source of varied information is http://www.loc.gov/. If it's been a while since you've been there, their homepage is due to undergo a redesign effective tomorrow.

In keeping with the New Year and a frequent New Year's resolution, the Library of Congress is hosting an event entitled “Weight Loss Through the Ages” on January 19.

Check out my two "bundles" for Google Reader:




In closing, one further event of note (later this week on January 15) is Wikipedia's 10th birthday.

Time to wait for the snow to kick in...