Entries from January 2005
January 13th, 2005 · Comments Off on Sci fi vision from Saturn’s moon, tomorrow
Starting at 3 a.m. EST tomorrow (January 14) NASA will have live Web TV
coverage of the Huygens probe touching down on Saturn’s moon Titan.
According to NASA, this artist’s conception
“shows Titan’s surface with Saturn
appearing dimly in the background through Titan’s thick atmosphere of
mostly nitrogen and methane. The Cassini spacecraft flies overhead with
its high-gain antenna pointed at the Huygens probe as it nears the
surface.
Titan’s surface may hold lakes of liquid ethane and methane,
sprinkled over a thin veneer of frozen methane and ammonia. Most of the
brownish-orange color comes from more heavily processed hydrocarbons
present in Titan’s atmosphere and on its surface. Artistic license has
been used to exaggerate the size of the orbiter, the sharpness of the
icy features, the tilt of Saturn’s rings, and the visibility of the
planet through Titan’s atmosphere.”
More Cassini Huygens linkage:
- Landing preparations underway
- European Space Agency Cassini-Huygens home page
- Video highlights will be posted online
- NASA coverage
- Expected “footprint” of images
- Good summary of mission
- Weird: Huygens will be blasting modern music as it descends…
Will Kurt Vonnegut’s sirens be found on Titan? Tune in tomorrow and find out for yourself.
Tags: Life, the universe, and everything
January 13th, 2005 · Comments Off on Sci fi vision
Tags: Life, the universe, and everything
January 12th, 2005 · Comments Off on “Don’t Even Think ABout It”
Lots of people get help from “To Do” lists. If you’re like me, you probably need a “To Don’t” list!
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And not just don’t DO every low-priority job that jumps into your head,
Don’t Even Think ABout It
Or, reduced to a mnemonic:
DETABI
So, instead of wasting neuron cycles on stuff I don’t plan to do anyway, why not visualize this excellent tabby cat picture*, and then (imagining I have a bad-gangster-movie accent) say, “De tabby!”, meaning 1) DETABI and 2) The tabby cat isn’t fussing, so why am I fussing?
DETABI should free up some time for more useful stuff–like creating mnemonics… |
* Thanks to AccordionGuy for posting the picture!
Update, October 28, 2005: These gorgeous kitties belong to Jennifer Brownlee, who posted this photo and more in this LiveJournal post. Thanks to Jennifer for pinging me with this information, and for her permission to keep sharing this great photo, all rights to which continue to belong to her.
Tags: Life, the universe, and everything
January 11th, 2005 · Comments Off on Keystone Cops version of Nobel banquet video
The Nobel Foundation has posted some videos of the award ceremony and dinner, including a two-minute time-lapse film of the banquet, with Keystone Cops music, that is either hilariously funny or else a deeply tragic modern equivalent of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias.
Some other highlights, from my point of view:
- The awards ceremony video (85 minutes, but you can jump around.)
- Frank gets his prize at about 35:30, and the wonderful soprano Susanna Andersson sings a Rossini aria at 56:35.
- The banquet (15 minute version)
- I like the procession, the Mozart,… and, of course, a glimpse of Frank Wilczek at 7:35!
Tags: Nobel
January 11th, 2005 · Comments Off on Add more ZZZ to shed LBS?
This just in from British scientists: Snooze more to lose more!
I can offer some inter-species corroboration. My dog Marianne keeps her youthful shape with only a few short outdoor romps each day. OTOH, if there were a US Olympic Sleeping team, Marianne would be Grade-A-Gold-Medal material!
Anyway, this is much better news than the physics skinny on diets.
Tags: Life, the universe, and everything
January 10th, 2005 · Comments Off on Please help shoot down trial balloon for “Salvador option”
Newsweek is floating an ugly Rumsfeld trial balloon. Should we now imitate Reagan’s secret use of death squads in El Salvador?
If we follow the El Salvador model, US special forces would train Iraqi “militia”, then turn them loose against insurgents and Sunni civilians suspected of harboring them.
One obvious problem with this model is that it’s hard to rein in a “militia” once you create them–as witness the Janjaweed militia in the Sudan Darfur conflict.
Worse, the Newsweek trial balloon hints that one of the main features of the Salvador model would be assassinating insurgent leaders. Just how would our hypothetical death squads tell the difference between a “terrorist” leader and a political opponent of the current regime? Political assassination is not a legitimate tool of government policy–I don’t want my own country to start using it.
Please join me in sending email to President Bush to oppose US use of the Salvador option.
Tags: Good versus Evil
January 9th, 2005 · Comments Off on Astronomy on a roll in Japanese bathrooms
Some Japanese students got a grant to promote astronomy–using toilet paper illustrated with star facts. After a successful launch in museums last year, the toilet paper is headed for public bathrooms.
Printed on the toilet paper is a description of the life of a star: the birth of a “star egg” with gas clouds in space, the nuclear fusion reaction starting its birth, the star’s expansion after its fuel hydrogen is burned up, and its death with the diffusion of planetary nebulae.
Available technology allows only repetitions of a 70-centimeter-long pattern, but the students say this is “just the right amount” because the process of the life of a star can be repeated in this length.
Far out, as we would have said in the Seventies. By several megaparsecs, very far out!
Tags: Life, the universe, and everything
January 8th, 2005 · Comments Off on What came out of the schmutz on November 11
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I just found out that the TV camera crew I live-blogged on November 11 produced quite a good short movie with that footage.
It includes a lot of the stuff I wrote about here (our piano really needs a tuning!) as well as some intriguing physics clips:
- BANG! A man shot from a cannon flies into a net (at least 20 times).
- Crash! An old truck gets bashed into rubble (only once), and
- Hmmmm….The night sky opens up to reveal…David Gross!
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Roland Zuiderveld
does a good job on the science of the strong force, quarks, and
gluons–all in 15 minutes and in Swedish, with time for Frank on the
accordion and the two of us slowly walking near our house.
Our dog Marianne doesn’t get any screen time–neither does
kitchen-blogging with my computer on top of the stove–but despite
these small flaws, I really enjoyed the movie–so thank you, Roland!
And thanks to Dennis, mysterious friend of GD, for emailing me the link.
Tags: Nobel
January 7th, 2005 · 1 Comment
The photo above is from the
White House account
of the Oval Office visit of six Nobel laureates–but don’t believe
their caption because that isn’t Frank Wilczek in the center of the
photo, it’s economics laureate Finn Kydland.
Still filling in blanks, this time from my December notebook:
At two o’clock, all in suits and most in coats, we piled into a
limousine-minibus hybrid to go to the White House. One NLOTFW* had
forgotten his photo ID, which delayed our departure. From Wyndham Hotel
to White House, about 20 minutes.
For security reasons, the bus stopped outside WH gates. We walked past
huge stages with canvas-wrapped lights and podiums where news anchors
stand when doing exterior shots. We all got white plastic tags that said ‘A’ (appointment).
As we entered the West Wing, I heard a helicopter’s whep-whep-whep getting closer. The
President, arriving from Canada,
said a young blonde aide. Then we went into theTeddy Roosevelt Room,
where another young aide, this one a Navy officer with lots of
medals, explained the drill: He had a
list, and laureates should line up in that order. Family members stuck
close to our own laureates. When the door to the Oval Office opened,
the President would be ready to begin. Don’t go in until the Navy guy
announces the laureate’s name. Laureate goes in, is greeted by Bush,
then laureate introduces family. Then photo of Bush with laureate, then
photo of Bush with laureate and spouse. Then laureate and spouse move
away and keep going counterclockwise to stand by the fireplace as Bush
greets the next laureate. Then a group photo of Bush with all laureates
by White House photographers. Then press photographers come in to take
exact same photo. Then it’s time to leave for the reception.
It was a very formal choreography, given its meaning by cameras recording it all.
Navy Guy: Frank Wilczek, Nobel Prize in physics. (Frank walks in,
trailed by Betsy. President Bush is standing right inside the door.
Bush shakes Frank’s hand.)
Bush: “Congratulations. We’re very proud of you. [Frank probably said
something intelligent and polite here, but I didn’t catch it.] Who’s
that with you?
Frank: This is my wife, Betsy Devine.
Bush: (shaking my hand and smiling) Congratulations.
Betsy: That was very nice of you to jump right out of your helicopter and come see us.
Bush: (looking pleased, thinking what to reply) It’s windy out there.
Betsy: Good thing we’re in here then.
Bush (grabbing Frank) Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll take a picture
with just the two of us. (They pose, **F*l*a*s*h**) Now a picture with
all three of us. (**F*l*a*s*h**) Thank you so much.
Frank and I move off toward the fireplace and Bush really hustles
toward the door to greet his next guest (and after the next guest, the
next one after that) with word-for-word exactly the same script.
“Congratulations … We’re very proud .. Who’s that with you?”
etc.
I imagine anybody who “meets” people in batches has to have some
routines worked out in advance–though campaign donors probably
get “Thank you, appreciate your support” instead of “Congratulations,
we’re very proud.” “Who’s that with you?” has a friendly, informal
sound–and works equally well for one wife or fifteen grandchildren.
But I digress–then the press photographers arrived, in two groups,
each one racing and leaping to set up in a good position.
(**F*l*a*s*h**) (*!*F*l*a*s*h*!*) (!*!*F*L*A*S*H*!*!)
Then, as we had been told, it was time to leave for the reception.
BTW, I really did think it showed admirable self-discipline for Bush to
hustle into our little ceremony right after his trip–especially
considering that he probably didn’t want to meet us at all. But I was
surprised to hear myself saying it. It’s funny the things that tumble
out of our mouths at those moments we don’t know what to say.
* Nobel Laureate Other Than Frank Wilczek
Tags: Nobel
January 6th, 2005 · Comments Off on Free “security” that’s worth every penny you pay for it…
CNN headline today: Microsoft offers free security program.
Putting ” Microsoft ” into the same sentence as the word “security” is a funny-ha-ha moment that’s hard to top, but Bill Gates has been trying.
He just told CNET that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is “the best” browser.
Really, Bill, stop–you’re making people squirt coffee out their noses here.
Tags: Learn to write funny
