Random

The class I'm teaching right now is "writing intensive" - so the homework is biased towards short essays and written discourse. One of my standard assignments is to have the students pick a NASA mission: a past mission, and a current mission, and a future mission, and write a summary of the mission plan and/or accomplishments. So, what do I do now? Ask them to pick a planned future mission that has now been cancelled and write what it might have done if flown?
bunch of little things that I really ought to say more about, but I'll be doing some paperwork instead Cosmic Horizons - new astro blog from down under by one of the very best kick ass distinguished senior astrophysicists on the planet - and it is a good read Did the Earth seed the Solar System with life, or vica versa - progress on quantifying panspermia conjectures within the Solar System The HARPS search for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone: I -- Very low-mass planets around HD20794, HD85512 and HD192310 Planetary Construction Zones in Occultation: Eclipses by Circumsecondary and…
Half Man Half Biscuit version, from John Peel session Brilliant!
A calm cool friday, as await the storm So, oh Mighty iPod One: Irene - a fizzle or da bomb? Woosh goes the randomizer. Woosh. The Covering: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon The Crossing: The Price I Pay - Billy Bragg The Crown: Mountains O'Things - Tracy Chapman The Root: Dr Gradus ad Parnassum The Past: The Captain - Biffy Clyro The Future: Heart Like a Wheel - Billy Bragg The Questioner: Questing, Not Coasting - Maximo Park The House: Sumarkveðja The Inside: Carol of the Bells/Deck the Halls The Outcome: Paradise Lost (You're the Reason Why) - Half Man Half Biscuit The…
I'm a little behind on TV, so I was catching up on the Daily Show this morning. Last Thursday had one of the best segments I've ever seen (and that bar is pretty high): The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy ConservativesGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is OverGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook The impetus for this segment was this op-ed in the New York Times by…
A 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the east coast yesterday, freaking everyone out, causing schools and offices to close, and causing general mayhem: (Source) I didn't feel it, and growing up in California, it might not have even registered. Then again, the reaction (general fear, disbelief, and confusion) is about what I would expect if we received even a half inch of snow in San Diego. But maybe now people out here in Boston won't be so confused when I mention my deep-seated fear of brick buildings. In other "disaster" related news, my computer has a fresh hard-drive, though I had to…
I'm on vacation this week, but was working on a post about the evolution of antibodies to be posted yesterday. Unfortunately, what greeted me when I turned on my computer thursday was this: (source) I'm actually a little surprised at how well I'm handling it, I would have expected that I'd be a wreck. Maybe it's my current idyllic location, or watching season 5 of Six Feet Under to give me perspective, or maybe it's the fact that I just decided to to a time-machine back up for the first time just before I left (which means, barring a meltdown on my external hard drive, the worst case is that…
stormy friday as portends gather and it is move-in day! Yes, They Are Back. So, we probe a puzzle dujour: the Definitely Not NASA ponderings on Scenarios for SETI Success - aka Alien Ecoterrorists Attack!!!. So, oh mighty iPod One: any Thennanin out There Threatening to Thwart Us? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh. The Covering: Serenade for the Doll The Crossing: Some Days You Gotta Dance - Dixie Chicks The Crown: Það er Jólasveinninn Minn The Root: Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks The Past: Menuett F-Dur - Mozart The Future: This War is Over - Melissa Etheridge The Questioner:…
This week, a WTF pair of plots were published on some economic data, namely US retail sales and consumer confidence. I have a theory about that... Here is the Consumer Confidence plot at Calculated Risk and here is the Retail Sales chart also from CR Note that consumer confidence, which is generally taken to be a coincident economic indicator, declines sharply, while retail sales increased. Confidence and Sales conveniently combined (click to embiggen) from zerohedge So, clearly, this is because there were 5 weekends in the reporting period because costs per item on essentials are up…
Ah, cool and crisp friday and we stroll over to the mighty iPod to divine yes, it is the iPod iChing, where the mighty randomizer reveals the truth, of questions carefully posed, with just enough ambiguity, using the terrific Tarot layout taught to us by the Timelord himself, although sometimes, on a whim, we use a zodiac solution instead, just 'cause we sometimes feel like twelve - hey maybe one day I should try a Malazan House reading! Do not let anyone tell you that this is just projection of over rationalizing monkey brains, evolved to look for patterns where there are none, in randomly…
Not infrequently, I get asked what it is I do, anyway, as a scientisty sort of person. I blogged it, of course, but that was a "typical day" - during term time and filled with paperwork and class prep and general rushing about. This morning I woke up and found the Sb Overlords had frontpaged this quote: "I think I need to go back and think about adaptive load balancing block solving of sparse, nasty almost diagonal matrices; that and whether kinetic energy turbulence really affects sound wave propagation (duh, of course it does, but how much...)?" Huh? Ah, Particle Physics snark... So, how…
"...all things needful had been ordered..." Sigh.
There's this NPR show I really like called "On the Media," and I've listened to just about every episode for the past 8 years through the podcast. As it's name implies, the show is about the media, and is a wonderfully meta way of getting the news through the prism of analyzing the way the news is covered. Throughout most of the last decade, I formed a mental image of the hosts, Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, and those mental images include faces, though I'd only ever heard their voices. My mental image of Brooke was of an early-sixties, petite lady with greying hair, maybe something like…
Large explosion in the center of Oslo, Norway. Near government buildings and VG newspaper, at central square. Multiple injuries. Early reports suggest it was a car bomb. P3S: NRK now reporting at least 80 kids killed on the island. Guy must have been a true psychopath to be able to shoot that many people in cold blood. youtube footage of immediate aftermath NRK video immediately after explosion NRK report, in norwegian, with pictures PS: reports now of at least 7 dead in the explosion many wounded, some seriously, 100+ "walking wounded" View Larger Map Concurrent shooting attack at a…
steamy sultry friday, and the randomizer puts the Grandmaster on to remind me that it is iPod iChing time! So, Mighty iPod One: the whole debt ceiling chatter - kabuki or crisis? The Covering: The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five The Crossing: Telegraph Road (Live Remix) - Dire Straits The Crown: Black Coffee in Bed The Root: I Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley & The Wailers The Past: Gridlock - The Pogues The Future: Twydale's Lament - Half Man Half Biscuit The Questioner: Dansi Dansi Dúkkan mín The House: Il Pieut Bergere - Sien Diels The Inside: Smells Like Teen…
for posterity great song from an old movie Ragga Gísla
You better watch out You better beware Albert said that E=mc2 Landscape: From the Tea Rooms of Mars to the Hell-holes of Uranus Lest we forget...
In some ways, I'm kinda jealous of the research Heather does. I love my macrophages, but studying the bugs that live in the extreme environment of deep sea hydrothermal vents has always fascinated me. As a consequence of the stuff she studies, Heather also has to (gets to?) take multi-week sea voyages to travel out to these creatures' hang out in order to gather samples. This year we will once again be on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, but we will be further South at Ashes vent field in Axial caldera. I'll see if I can find a map for the next post. We will be deploying an exciting instrument to do…
Then and Now.
Friday. Raining. Interesting week. So, what does the mighty iPod One have to say about our clouded future? Whence hence and what changes may we expect? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Woosh! The Covering: Identify the Beat - Marc Smith vs Safe n' Sound The Crossing: Mrs McGrath - Bruce Springsteen The Crown: Parachutes - Pearl Jam The Root: Engill í Rólu - Bubbi Morthens The Past: My Father's House - Ben Harper The Future: Love on a Farm Boy's Wages - XTC The Questioner: Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello The House: Roadhouse Blues - Doors The Inside: Holiday (live) - Green Day The Outcome:…