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official site / wiki). Below are a few pictures (and a video) I wanted to share.


One of the two giant mirrors (8.4m) in the LBT. There is nowhere inside of the structure that you can actually get both of them in frame at the same time, so large are they.


The view looking down from the very top of the LBT.


If you don't know why I'm including this picture, then you haven't been paying attention. Proper grammar makes me happy.


From the parking lot outside the LBT. The picture doesn't even begin to show you just how huge this thing is.


Taken from a distance of about 250m or so.


Sunset from level 5 of the LBT (essentially the floor upon which the mirrors are mounted.) The sun is just dipping below the horizon on the left.

Click here for a video of the doors to the LBT opening as filmed through one of the mirrors (3.8MB). [an error occurred while processing this directive] 09/26/07 [an error occurred while processing this directive] So, I've been having quite the ordeal with HP lately. See, I sent in my laptop for service (yay for extended warranties) on August 13th. I don't feel like going into all the details, but a month and a half, three missed delivery dates, and what was probably around 6 hours on the phone with tech support (most of which was getting transferred to the proper people) later, I am now here with a brand new laptop which is better than the old one in a number of ways (double RAM, 2.4 times the HDD space, faster processor, better graphics card, etc), all at no extra charge to me. I'm not sure what exactly happened to the old laptop; I suspect it got lost at some point in the process. But the moral of the story is that in the end, though it took longer than I'd've liked, HP made it right in the end. Not sure if this is praise or condemnation for the company though, so you should take it as you will.

I also found of interest the following anecdote. A friend of mine's niece was recently made aware that we (as a culture) kill and eat cows as food. This upset her terribly, and she began to cry. In five years though, the idea of eating a cow will be no more repulsive to her than that of eating cake. It makes you realize exactly how much conditioning we (as people) are put through when we are young.