I’m back, here are some cool links
September 21, 2010
Eating lunch with the Darlins in the Bronx.
So I’m back! It was a blast and I’d do it all again in heartbeat. I don’t have time to give a full rundown, but quite possibly the most memorable moment was realizing that a tornado was hitting Brooklyn while Those Darlins were soundchecking in Bowery Ballroom. Here’s the official weather report from the NWS. Needless to say, tornadoes are pretty rare in NYC. Thankfully we were in Manhattan while all this was happening. Those Darlins have some great new songs on their new record, and their setlist for this tour is mostly those new songs, peppered with the favs from their debut, and the free single “Nightjogger” which you can download at the Nashville Cream. Basically they’ve taken on a bit more of a pure rock & roll character, and drummer “Sheriff” Linwood Regansburg has taken on a much more prominent role in the songwriting, and even sings on one of the new songs, though they’re not yet playing that song live. Stay tuned for more on them and more on the results of my photo documentary project.
Meanwhile, here are some awesome things I came across while catching up on all my RSS feeds:
Vaccines absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, do NOT cause autism. A new study explored every possible way that thimerosal containing vaccines (TCVs) could be linked to autism and there was none. Absolutely no connection whatsoever; the same findings as the many other studies that have been done to investigate the claims of the anti-vax crowd. In fact, the result hinted that the administration of TCVs between birth and 7 months may actually reduce the risk of autism. It’s very simple, get your kids vaccinated! If you don’t, you are a threat to public health. Vaccines are one of mankind’s greatest scientific breakthroughs and have saved countless lives. There will always be a miniscule (and utterly negligible) risk of a bizarre allergic reaction or other complication, as there is with any medication or vaccine, but that risk is far, far, FAR outweighed by the benefits. And those risks have now been proven once and for all NOT to include autism.
A pair of astronomers have made an official prediction that the discovery of the first truly earth-like exoplanet will happen in less than a year– May of 2011. They used a well-known methodology called Scientometrics to make this prediction. I’d venture to say that to me, nothing in the field of astronomy, or even science in general, is more exciting than the very likely possibility of life on other planets. The discovery of the first true earth twin is a major step in that path. I really hope this prediction comes true.
Five awesome facts about NASA’s next robotic mission to Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory (a.k.a. Curiosity) which will launch in late 2011.
23 amazing photographs from the 1940s and 50s of nuclear bomb tests conducted by the US Military. This New York Times photos series is utterly fascinating, mainly because of images 5 through 7. Most of us have seen plenty of images of the mushroom clouds created by nuclear blasts, but those 3 images are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. They were taken with a super high-speed camera and literally captured the blast at the very instant the explosion began. If I saw this image out of context I would probably think it was a microscope image of some sort of virus. The amazing irony here is that both a virus and an atomic bomb are incredibly destructive, yet in such completely different ways.
The actual scale of the observable universe, from the smallest possible thing the largest possible thing, is utterly impossible for the human mind to comprehend. Mathematicians came up with the concept of “orders of magnitude” to help with this, but I say it’s still impossible for any human to really grasp. But this fun little interactive Flash animation is pretty cool way of displaying the concept. (Via Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Twitter)
Pixies/Next Big Nashville tix deadline/other weekend stuff
September 10, 2010
Let’s all face it, the big news show-wise this weekend is The Pixies playing two consecutive shows at the Ryman. This undeniably awesome, but I haven’t the money nor the means to go. I halfway missed the Pixies train in high school/middle school, so they will never have the significance to me that they do to some. The bands that cemented themselves firmly into my formative years were Nirvana, Weezer, and Green Day… amongst many others. But those were the main ones. So, yay Pixies?
Some other good stuff going down this weekend (besides the AMA’s):
FRIDAY:
There are a shitload of bands at the 5 Spot- Fly Golden Eagle, The Early Evening, Slow Claw, Chrome Pony and By Lightning are all playing as part of “Family Tree Vol. 2.” 9pm $5
Dozen Dimes, Frank The Fuck Out, and Diarrhea Planet @ The End. 9pm $5 (This is the Dozen Dimes’ album release show… I’m not up to speed on these things but I thought DD’s album came out a couple months ago… but whatevs, this is an awesome lineup regardless!)
SATURDAY:
Well, the 2nd Pixies show (tix still available!) is about it.
SUNDAY:
Whoa, sunday rocks…
Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Strange Boys, Cy Barkley, Natural Child @ Glen Danzig’s House. $5 7pm. I’ll be there.
Best Coast, Cults @ Mercy Lounge. $12, 8pm
The Love Language, Bows and Arrows @ Exit/In. $10, 8pm
MONDAY:
(Because I’ll be gone and not blogging for a week probably)
Keep On Movin’ celebrates their 2-year birthday. The weekly 5 Spot dance party/boogie-fest has been going strong for 2 years, so show ’em some love!
I must also mention that today is the LAST DAY to get early bird discounts on Next BIG Nashville tickets! Wristbands are $40 and VIP badges are $215, and after today the prices go up to $45 and $250, respectively. Act now or pay more later.
Before I leave for a week-long hiatus due to my road stint with Those Darlins, I must share one of the most ridiculously design-nerdy things I’ve ever seen. Apparently some super nerdy graphic designers had waaaay too much time on their hands and decided to figure out how many iterations of the word “helvetica” in 100 point un-kerned type would fit between the earth and the moon. Then they had some more time and decided to see how big, in points, the word helvetica would have to be to fit once between the earth and the moon. As ridiculous as this is, it makes me very happy. Click through to find out the results at kottke.org.
Have a great weekend and week, because it’ll probably be that long before you hear from me again on here.
Energy and space science rant
September 2, 2010
Rant time.
In case you haven’t been paying attention to the news, there was ANOTHER FUCKING OIL RIG EXPLOSION IN THE GULF. Which is why I’m going to now rant about how terrible fossil fuels are. There is nothing good about them as an energy source. They are filthy/pollute the environment, they’re inefficient, and most importantly they are FINITE. We will run out of them. Thankfully this particular explosion doesn’t seem as though it will cause more oil to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, but they aren’t sure yet. I firmly believe that every nation and every energy company in the world should be focusing 100% of their efforts on ways to eliminate the use of fossil fuels as an energy source as FAST AS POSSIBLE. As long as the world is still relying on them, we are speeding straight down a highway that ends with world wars the likes of which have never been seen, and possibly the end of the human race. Our use of fossil fuels will either lead to so much pollution that the entire ecosystem will collapse, or they will become so scarce that the entire world will go to war fighting over them. The very survival of our species could rely on finding a way to 100% renewable energy. Whether it be from the sun, the wind, the ocean, whatever… 100% renewable and clean energy as soon as possible MUST be the absolute goal, and we must stop at nothing to get there. There are lots of other uses for oil than energy, and dare I say those are probably a necessary evil, at least for a while- virtually all plastic is made from it, along with a host of other things, but those pale in comparison to how much is used for energy. I have no doubt technology will get to a point where we don’t need oil for manufacturing either, but energy should be our #1 priority.
Now for my space rant:
A group of spaceflight’s elite sent a letter to Congress yesterday urging the House Science & Technology Committee to revamp its NASA authorization bill. The group, composed of former astronauts, space industry veterans, and former NASA officials, are asking Congress to make their version of the bill look more like the Senate version, which is much closer to Obama’s initial budget recommendation which was announced in February. Unfortunately middle TN’s own Bart Gordon is the head of said committee. Yo Bart- I expect more from you than this. Look at the facts- Obama is right! I’ve said this many times on here before and I’ll say it again: NASA needs to focus its efforts on exploration beyond low-earth orbit and the moon. The private spaceflight industry is more than capable of taking over the job of getting our astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and can be capable much sooner than NASA could using its currently-under-development Constellation Program. But they need the help of NASA in the form of $$$. Less $$$, mind you, than we would spend on Constellation. We will never see the kind of innovation and progress again that we saw from NASA in the 1960’s unless their goals are ambitious and lofty. Putting a man on an asteroid and eventually on Mars should be the new main goal of NASA’s manned spaceflight program, and exploring the moons of Jupiter and Saturn should be the main goal of the unmanned (robotic probe) programs. Those are the kind of ambitious goals that will bring back the kind of innovation and tenacity of the 1960’s. Only this time it will be scientifically driven, not driven by a race to get to the moon before the Russians.
Rant: over.
NASA’s Kepler Mission discovers multi-planet system in Milky Way
August 26, 2010
Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Kepler Mission released its first official findings today at press event. These are the first fully confirmed exoplanet discoveries by the mission, and there will be many more confirmations coming down the pipe no doubt. This system isn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped… on Tuesday I read that NASA was planning a press conference to announce Kepler’s findings so naturally I was hoping they’d found a planet similar to earth, but I seriously doubted the news would be that exciting. I’d say it’ll be at least another year before any earth twins are confirmed, because obviously an earth twin would have an orbital period close to 1 earth year, and multiple transits would be needed to confirm it as a planet.
The system discovered is the first multi-planet system confirmed using the transit method (measuring the dip in light seen from a star as a planet crosses between us and the star). It has two Saturn-sized planets and possibly one “super earth,” a planet roughly 1.5 times the size of earth. This smaller planet has not been confirmed, however, so it’s still just an “exoplanet candidate.” Furthermore, they say the smaller planet is VERY close to the star, completing an orbit in only a matter of days. This means the planet would be scorchingly hot and quite unsuitable for any kind of life. While not the “holy grail” of planet-hunting, these findings confirm that the techniques and devices being used to hunt for exoplanets are indeed working, and that we’re well on our way toward finding that illusive earth-twin. (Via NASA)
Is it thursday already?
August 19, 2010
Really? It’s fucking thursday? How the hell did it get to be thursday? I’ve been so busy this week I don’t even know what day it is anymore. So yeah, that’s why I haven’t posted in almost a week. I’m even short on time right now, so I’m just going to share a few tidbits that I came across the past couple of days, but didn’t have time to blog about.
- Next year, Neptune will complete its first full revolution around the Sun since its first actual telescopic observation in 1846. This will happen on July 12, 2011… why the big deal? Well, there was some misinformation floating around about it happening in the next few days, and I tweeted about it, so I thought I should clear that up. So on July 11, 2011, we should all have a happy new year party for Neptune! (Via Discovery News)
- As I mentioned a few weeks ago, one of my favorite geek/scientist psuedo-celebrities, Dr. Phil Plait, is about to become a bonafide celebrity when his own TV show, Phil Plait’s Bad Universe, airs on the Discovery Channel. The air date has been set, and it’s much sooner than you think- August 29th. So be sure to tune in at 10pm ET/9pm CT to see Plait take a Mythbusters-esque approach to debunking bogus claims about various ways the earth could be destroyed. It will be a 3-part series, but could be extended(Via Plait’s blog, Bad Astronomy)
- For you daily “WTF!?”, immerse yourself in this Cat Fashion show. (Via Yewknee)
More Verizon iPhone rumors/Perseid meteor shower
August 9, 2010
We’ve all heard various rumors about the iPhone breaking out of its AT&T chains and coming to other wireless carriers. As a current Android user I could almost care-less about this prospect, but I will always have a soft spot for Apple products. There’s no doubt that the iPhone is an amazing piece of work. Everyone thought that Steve Jobs would announce that the iPhone would be coming to at least T-Mobile (which, like AT&T, uses the GSM standard for its wireless network), if not Sprint and/or Verizon as well. I doubted it would come to Sprint and/or Verizon this soon because those networks use the CDMA standard rather than GSM, which would require a complete re-working of the iPhone’s innards, whereas releasing the iPhone to T-Mobile would not. As well all know, no such announcement was made. All hope is not lost, however, as this Gizmodo article and this TechCrunch article both report on an order Apple recently placed with Qualcomm, which is the world’s leader in CDMA chipsets. The numbers all work out and point to a CDMA iPhone hitting the market sometime around December or January. The TechCrunch guy seems convinced that it’ll be on Verizon, but it could just as easily be only on Sprint. (Though Apple would be stupid to avoid Verizon like that…) I can’t fathom any other reason for Apple to purchase several million CDMA chipsets other than to build a CDMA iPhone, so I’m pretty convinced that sometime in the next year we’ll see a CDMA iPhone. As to whether its on Verizon, Sprint, or both… your guess is as good as mine.
The most reliable yearly meteor shower of all, the Perseids, will peak this week on the nights of Aug. 11th and 12th. They’re the “slow and steady winner” of meteor showers- that is, they don’t usually have insanely high meteors-per-hour rates, but they always show up every year without fail, and put on fairly good show for skywatchers. This year works out well for viewing because the peak coincides with a new moon. This is great because the light pollution caused by a full or even half moon drastically reduces the amount of meteors you’ll see. If either of these nights are cloudless in your location, and you can get a good distance away from city lights, you’re going to see a pretty good show of shooting stars. Last year Megan and I were on a vacation to Yellowstone, and thus we had a no problem with city lights, but unfortunately the full moon made it difficult to see many Perseids. We did manage to see a few though, despite the moon. The only problem is this year we’re not on vacation and I have a job to go to both of those mornings. If you can manage it, though, you should go out late on the 11th or 12th, look to the northeast, and treat yourself to a spectacle. (Via Space.com)
Sun sends blast of particles due to arrive tonight
August 3, 2010
The above image was taken just as our Sun belched a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) in our direction on sunday night. This blob of charged particles are already beginning to interact with the earth’s magentosphere, and will likely result in some spectacular aurorae for the northern latitudes as the brunt of it arrives tonight and tomorrow morning. This is the first large scale activity the Sun has seen in several years, as it has been at the low-point of its 11-year cycle of sunspot activity. Events like this will slowly become more common over the next 3 or 4 years as the sun reaches its next peak in activity around 2012-2013. This is NOT any kind of major disaster, though it may cause a few glitches with satellites, as any CME event is prone to do. Unfortunately TN is way too far south to see any of the auroral activity, but if you’re in the northern US you might be able to see it. It is possible for aurorae to be seen this far south, but it’s very rare and requires a very powerful solar storm, such as the one from April 2001 (the last solar maximum) which made aurorae visible as far south as Texas. Such an event is possible as we head toward this next solar maximum, but I wouldn’t count on it. This upcoming maximum is expected to be about half as intense as the last one. (Via Space.com and Universe Today.
Here’s a video of the current CME when it first erupted sunday night.
Facts and myths about the Kepler exoplanet cadidates
July 29, 2010
Screenshot from Sasselov's talk
So there’s been a bit of a media buzz lately about the possibility that the Kepler space observatory may have discovered 100’s of earth-like planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy. Recently at a TED talk, one of the chief investigating scientists on the Kepler team, Dr. Dimitar Sasselov, mentioned that the team had found “candidates” for “earth-like” worlds, “that is, having a radius smaller than twice Earth’s radius.” Many mainstream media outlets have twisted this into reports saying that we’ve found 100’s of earth-twins (having an atmosphere, liquid water, etc…) orbiting other stars.
First of all, we HAVE NOT confirmed ANY of these as exoplanets yet. It will take considerable follow-up observations by other telescopes to confirm these as exoplanets, and not glitches or other phenomena that look like a transiting exoplanet. Also, the phrase “earth-like” as he used it simply means that it’s similar in size to earth. Just because an exoplanet is similar in size and composition to earth does not mean it is habitable. In fact, most of the exoplanet candidates have fast orbits and are very close to their parent star (which is why they were detected so quickly). This would make them much more akin to Mercury or Venus- both of which are far too hot to sustain life. The true earth-like exoplanets (that are in the habitable zone, have a similar radius, and could potentially harbor life) will take at least another year to discover, simply because they have longer orbital periods- closer to 1 year. Most of this information was culled from Dr. Sasselov’s NASA blog post in which he clarifies what he was saying in his talk. For even more info, check out Universe Today.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly excited about this mission, but I’m not going to pop the champagne cork until those scientists issue an official press release saying something like, “YES, we have definitely PROVEN that planet earth is not unique, and our galaxy is filled with small, rocky planets orbiting within the habitable zone of their parent stars.” That is a day I’ve dreamed of ever since I was a little boy fascinated by astronomy programs on the Discovery channel and the X-Files. There has been tons of speculation on this matter, but until now there was no solid, observational evidence to PROVE it.
Dr. Phil Plait gets own TV show on Discovery
July 23, 2010
Pardon me while I totally nerd-out for a minute… but I must share some news that made me very happy this morning. I first saw this in a tweet from Dr. Neil de Grasse-Tyson. Dr. Phil Plait- astronomer, author, blogger, and relentless promoter of real science and reality in general- is getting his very own show on the Discovery Channel. I’ve been a big fan of his ever since discovering his blog Bad Astronomy. He’s been mentioning a so-called “sooper seekrit project” in his posts for about a year now, and this must be what he was referring to. I get the feeling that there was some sort of miscommunication between him and the powers-that-be at Discovery, because all the tweets and mentions about this new show lead back to this YouTube video, which is basically a promo commercial/sneak-peek at the new series. However, he hasn’t yet mentioned it on his blog or even tweeted about it *update: he finally mentioned it on his blog here. Turns out it will only be a 3-part series… :(* . This doesn’t surprise me given the fact that he’s currently at Comic-Con. It looks like the show is going to take on a Mythbusters-esque vibe but mostly focusing on all the myths and junk science surrounding various doomsday/disaster scenarios such as asteroid impacts, comet impacts, gamma-ray bursts, and hopefully the ridiculous 2012 Mayan calendar myth. I honestly wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if Jamie and Adam of Mythbusters are producers of this show… or somehow otherwise involved with it.
No idea when this show will air, *the show will probably air this fall* but I’m definitely looking forward to it. Congrats, Phil!
Senate and House pass bills for future of NASA
July 22, 2010
The Senate and the House of Representatives have both passed their own versions of Obama’s proposed budget for NASA. As I’ve mentioned here before, Obama’s plan to abandon the Constellation program and leave American access to low earth orbit in the hands of the private sector was met with a good bit of criticism, both from Republicans and Democrats alike. Though I supported (and still support) his initial plan, I figured we would end up with some sort of compromise in the end. Not surprisingly, that’s where we’re headed now that the Senate and House versions have come out. I don’t have the time nor the willpower to type out the gritty details of the differences, but in a nutshell, the Senate wants to extend the space shuttle by another mission or two, slash funding for commercial space companies in half, accelerate the development of a heavy-lift rocket based on current shuttle booster technology, and slash funding of research into advanced technologies. For a more detailed comparison between Obama’s plan and the Senate plan, check out this article on Universe Today.
The House plan, which was issue by the House Science and Technology Committee (chaired by TN’s own Bart Gordon) is even worse. They want to slash funding for development of commercial access to low earth orbit by MUCH more than the Senate version, and like the Senate they want to speed up development of a heavy-lift rocket. The biggest problem is that the House version essentially brings back Constellation. For more detailed info on the House version, check out this article on Space.com.
I’m by no means a politician or an economics expert, but I’m firm in my belief that if NASA keeps focusing money and effort on access to LEO/the ISS, then we are spinning our wheels and making no progress. NASA cannot keep funding and worrying about getting our astronauts to and from the ISS AND worry about/fund our exploration into the rest of the solar system at the same time.
steve cross loves music and science 