How To

From the “Complete Jamulian’s Guide To Happiness":

Men — to keep your woman happy, you just need to be:

1. a friend

2. a companion

3. a lover

4. a brother

5. a father

6. a master

7. a chef

8. an electrician

9. a carpenter

10. a plumber

11. a mechanic

12. a decorator

13. a stylist

14. a sexologist

15. a gynecologist

16. a psychologist

17. a pest exterminator

18. a psychiatrist

19. a healer

20. a good listener

21. an organizer

22. a good father

23. very clean

24. sympathetic

25. athletic

26. warm

27. attentive

28. gallant

29. intelligent

30. funny

31. creative

32. tender

33. strong

34. understanding

35. tolerant

36. prudent

37. ambitious

38. capable

39. courageous

40. determined

41. true

42. dependable

43. passionate

44. compassionate

Without forgetting to:

45. give her compliments regularly

46. love shopping

47. be honest

48. be very rich

49. not stress her out

50. not look at other girls

While also:

51. giving her lots of attention, but expect little yourself

52. giving her lots of time, especially time for herself

53. giving her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

And most of all, it is very important:

54. Never to forget: birthdays, anniversaries, and any arrangements she makes

Women: to keep your man happy, you need to:

1. Show up naked

2. Bring food

A Thing of Beauty

For quite a while now, I’ve looked forward to a periodic (automatic) email I receive from Ron Baalke at the Mars Exploration Program. It’s a simple email — just a list of links to particularly interesting new photos from the Mars Global Surveyor. The images here (click for a larger view) are from the latest of those emails.

Like many of our robotic (unmanned) space missions, this one has gathered little public attention (though the scientific community is pretty excited about it!). It just keeps plugging along, delivering remarkable science results month after month. To me these technological marvels rank amongst the most significant accomplishments of mankind, but clearly I’m one of the few who think so <smile>.

The Mars Global Surveyor images have another attribute that sets them apart from the products of many other missions: many of them are quite beautiful, wholly apart from their science value. Click on the thumbnails and see for yourself!

From Malin Space Sciences' Mars Global Surveyor site:

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) first acquired images of Mars during its approach to the red planet in mid-1997. The spacecraft began orbiting Mars in September 1997. Following a period of aerobraking to achieve a nearly-circular, nearly-polar orbit, MGS began systematic mapping operations in March 1999. The primary mission was conducted for one Mars year, through January 2001. An extended mission phase followed. MGS and MOC are currently expected to operate through at least December 2006.

Hundreds of MOC images with captions describing their contents have been compiled and released by the MOC team at Malin Space Science Systems since 1997. The links below provide access to these captioned releases.

The link above takes you to the home page for the entire archive of MGS/MOC images made publicly available. It’s quite overwhelming; one could spend hours and hours up there…