I managed to come up with a surprising number of classic pop culture reference titles for this entry on the way lsquohomersquo from work on friday evening including ldquoTalk Dirty to Merdquo ldquoI Should Wear My Sunglasseshellip Even at Nightrdquo and ldquoDust in the Windrdquo. I have no doubt that there are many more brilliant alternatives out there so if yoursquove got
Monthly Archives: January 2010
Cats and Dogs
One of the phrases you were taught very early on highschool that it could be raining cats and dogs in England. Not only in England. Just out of my bed checking the weather even before 8 oclock already an Italian was on his way to the La Junt. Leaving the caring Hospedaje in Villa Santa Lucia and having said goodbye to Rafo and Jan who were also Southbound. Immediately il cime de Santa Lucia sta
Flamenco
I went to my first live Flamenco show earlier this week. Flamenco is a form of baila y msica dance and music. It is known throughout Spain but is only native to the region of Andalusa. It has many Arabic and Gypsy influences. Flamenco shows usually include a guitar player a singer and a dancer. I went with a group of friends from school. The bar that it was held at was at the entrance to th
Should the Senate Confirm Ben Bernanke?
Yes.
You might be suprised by that answer. To be clear, I think the Fed has erred tremendously during Ben's first term, both by supporting the bailouts and by expanding the Fed's actions beyond standard open market operations (e.g., buying up mortgage-backed securities). In my utopia, the Fed would not exist at all.
But we do not live in that utopia (yet). If Ben is not confirmed, we will stil have a Fed, and someone will be chairman. So the following points argue in favor of confirmation:
1. Hindsight is easier than foresight. The Fed had to act in real time. Many of Ben's current critics supported the Fed's actions as they occurred, even if they disagree now. And macroeconomists as a group believe Ben has done a good job.
2. Ben took the actions he did because he was convinced they were right for the economy. He may have been mistaken, but his intentions were always benevolent.
3. Most distinguished candidates to replace him will be horrified if he is not confirmed. So, his successor may be far less talented.
4. Ben is being made a scapegoat (perhaps by politicos within the White House), to soothe populist rage.
5. Stability in policy is important, even if that policy is not perfect. If Ben is not confirmed, uncertainty about monetary policy increases dramatically.
So I endorse Ben for a second term, without reservation.
Nobody Knows an Engineer
Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, says our media-driven world has given children, and especially girls and minorities, so many sports and entertainment heroes, that by the time they are 12 years old they want nothing to do with science and engineering. It's likely that in today's world, a typi
Calling All Female Valve Engineers
For female engineers only… How do you like working as a valve engineer? Did you always want to be a valve engineer or did you just "wind up" there? Tell us about your experiences working with valves. Does it offer enough challenge? What about the possibility for career advancement? Is it just
The Future Internet
A recent article in Network World makes 10 predictions about what the Internet will be like in the year 2020. Some of them are no-brainers, such as: "more people will use the Internet" than do so today; it will be more geographically dispersed; and it'll attract more hackers. Others might be less ex
NASA Adds Extensive Data to Open Government Initiative Web Site
NASA has contributed a wide range of scientific data to the new publicly accessible Web site "Data.gov" in accordance with the administration's Open Government Directive issued in Dec. 2009.The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the federal government. Public users may search for information by topic or by accessing the data contributed by any of the 24 participating major government departments and agencies.
NASA's input includes timely, extensive, accurate and relevant data about, Earth science and observation research, global change, agency missions, projects and instruments. Data.gov is a searchable Web site providing access to government information through the Raw Data, Tool and GeoData Catalogs.
The data may be read on line or downloaded to improve public knowledge of the agency and its operations; potentially create economic opportunities; or respond to need and demand as identified through public or industry consultation.
NASA products are in the Tool and GeoData Catalogs. Tool Catalog products include planet counter and climate change widgets and various Earth observation and other analysis utilities. In the GeoData Catalog, the agency posted more than 600 datasets across a wide range of imagery, maps, atmospheric, climate, geological and geophysical data. NASA will continuously update and add new data sets as they become available.
NASA's submission of an additional 18 catalogs released today is the first milestone within the Open Government Directive. Over the coming weeks, NASA will release a new Web site and provide a platform for public participation and engagement becoming a more transparent, participatory and collaborative agency.
For information about and access to Data.gov, visit: http://www.data.gov.
View my blog's last three great articles....
- The First of Many Asteroid Finds for WISE
- Galaxy Cluster Has Two 'Tails' to Tell
- NASA Extends the World Wide Web Out Into Space
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The First of Many Asteroid Finds for WISE
The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE
› Full image and caption
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth asteroid, the first of hundreds it is expected to find during its mission to map the whole sky in infrared light.
The near-Earth object, designated 2010 AB78, was discovered by WISE Jan. 12. After the mission's sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars, researchers followed up and confirmed the discovery with the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) visible-light telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea.
The asteroid is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) from Earth. It is estimated to be roughly 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter and circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system. The object comes as close to the sun as Earth, but because of its tilted orbit, it is not thought to pass near our planet. This asteroid does not pose any foreseeable impact threat to Earth, but scientists will continue to monitor it.
WISE, which began its all-sky survey on Jan. 14, is expected to find about 100-thousand previously undiscovered asteroids in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and hundreds of new near-Earth asteroids. It will also spot millions of new stars and galaxies.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The ground-based observations are partly supported by the National Science Foundation.
More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise, http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise .
View my blog's last three great articles....
- Galaxy Cluster Has Two 'Tails' to Tell
- NASA Extends the World Wide Web Out Into Space
- NASA Tweetup Gives Public Birds-Eye View Of Space ...
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Galaxy Cluster Has Two ‘Tails’ to Tell
Two spectacular tails of X-ray emission have been seen trailing behind a galaxy using the Chandra X-ray Observatory. A composite image of the galaxy cluster Abell 3627 shows X-rays from Chandra in blue, optical emission in yellow and emission from hydrogen light -- known to astronomers as 'H-alpha' -- in red. The optical and H-alpha data were obtained with the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope in Chile.
At the front of the tail is the galaxy ESO 137-001. The brighter of the two tails has been seen before and extends for about 260,000 light years. The detection of the second, fainter tail, however, was a surprise to the scientists.
The X-ray tails were created when cool gas from ESO 137-001 (with a temperature of about ten degrees above absolute zero) was stripped by hot gas (about 100 million degrees) as it travels towards the center of the galaxy cluster Abell 3627. What astronomers observe with Chandra is essentially the evaporation of the cold gas, which glows at a temperature of about 10 million degrees. Evidence of gas with temperatures between 100 and 1,000 degrees Kelvin in the tail was also found with the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Galaxy clusters are collections of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies held together by gravity that are enveloped in hot gas. The two-pronged tail in this system may have formed because gas has been stripped from the two major spiral arms in ESO 137-001. The stripping of gas is thought to have a significant effect on galaxy evolution, removing cold gas from the galaxy, shutting down the formation of new stars in the galaxy, and changing the appearance of inner spiral arms and bulges because of the effects of star formation.
View my blog's last three great articles....
- NASA Extends the World Wide Web Out Into Space
- NASA Tweetup Gives Public Birds-Eye View Of Space ...
- NASA Astronauts Presenting Special 'Space Veteran'...
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NASA Extends the World Wide Web Out Into Space
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week - personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection.Expedition 22 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer made first use of the new system Friday, when he posted the first unassisted update to his Twitter account, @Astro_TJ, from the space station. Previous tweets from space had to be e-mailed to the ground where support personnel posted them to the astronaut's Twitter account.
"Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! 🙂 More soon, send your ?s"
This personal Web access, called the Crew Support LAN, takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station and gives astronauts the ability to browse and use the Web. The system will provide astronauts with direct private communications to enhance their quality of life during long-duration missions by helping to ease the isolation associated with life in a closed environment.
During periods when the station is actively communicating with the ground using high-speed Ku-band communications, the crew will have remote access to the Internet via a ground computer. The crew will view the desktop of the ground computer using an onboard laptop and interact remotely with their keyboard touchpad.
Astronauts will be subject to the same computer use guidelines as government employees on Earth. In addition to this new capability, the crew will continue to have official e-mail, Internet Protocol telephone and limited videoconferencing capabilities.
To follow Twitter updates from Creamer and two of his crewmates, ISS Commander Jeff Williams and Soichi Noguchi, visit:
http://twitter.com/NASA_Astronauts
For more information about the space station, visit:
View my blog's last three great articles....
- NASA Tweetup Gives Public Birds-Eye View Of Space ...
- NASA Astronauts Presenting Special 'Space Veteran'...
- Stellar Students Selected As NASA Ambassadors
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NASA Tweetup Gives Public Birds-Eye View Of Space Shuttle Mission
For the first time, NASA Twitter followers can personally go inside the heart of a space shuttle mission at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA is hosting a unique Tweetup on Wednesday, Feb. 17 during Endeavour's STS-130 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour is targeted to launch on Sunday, Feb. 7.
"We're excited to be hosting NASA's seventh Tweetup," said NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who also is known as @astro_Mike. "This is the home of all of the astronauts and the historic Mission Control Center. It's an outstanding location to provide our Twitter community with an insider's view of human spaceflight. I'll be on one of the two mission control teams working at that time to keep Endeavour and space station operating safely. Hopefully a few of my Twitter followers can participate in this exciting event."
NASA will randomly select 100 individuals on Twitter from a pool of registrants who sign up on the Web. An additional 50 registrants will be added to a waitlist. Registration opens at noon EST on Tuesday, Jan. 26, and closes at noon EST Wednesday, Jan. 27. For more information about the Tweetup and to sign up, visit:
The event will provide NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to take a tour of Johnson; view mission control and astronauts' training facilities; and speak with flight directors, trainers, astronauts and managers. The Tweetup will include a "meet and greet" session to allow participants to mingle with fellow Tweeps and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.
To follow NASA programs and astronauts on Twitter visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate
For more information about space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission, visit:
View my blog's last three great articles....
- NASA Astronauts Presenting Special 'Space Veteran'...
- Stellar Students Selected As NASA Ambassadors
- High School Students Can Send Experiments Flying w...
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NASA Astronauts Presenting Special ‘Space Veteran’ Super Bowl Coin
The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-129 mission will deliver a specially minted silver medallion to National Football League officials at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The medallion will be used for the official coin toss prior to the kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, Feb. 7.
Shuttle commander Charlie Hobaugh, a graduate of North Ridgeville High School near Cleveland, Pilot Barry Wilmore, Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Bobby Satcher and Mike Foreman, from Wadsworth, Ohio, returned from their 11-day space mission to the International Space Station on Nov. 27.
The crew will present Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys jerseys and a football, inscribed with the name of every member of the Hall of Fame, which also accompanied the crew on their 4.5 million mile space journey last fall. The astronauts will share mission highlights with attendees, which will include local students and community partners.
The STS-129 shuttle mission included three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the station's truss, or backbone. The platforms hold large spare parts to sustain operations after the shuttles are retired. The crew delivered approximately 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that provide power to the station, keep it from overheating, and maintain a proper orientation in space.
For information about the STS-129 mission, visit:
View my blog's last three great articles....
- Stellar Students Selected As NASA Ambassadors
- High School Students Can Send Experiments Flying w...
- NASA Climatologist Gavin Schmidt Discusses the Sur...
View this site car shipping car transport auto transport
Stellar Students Selected As NASA Ambassadors
NASA has selected 105 of its best and brightest interns and fellows for the NASA Student Ambassador Program. The agency uses the program to engage undergraduate and graduate students in NASA science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, research and interactive opportunities. Selected students represent 33 states and 81 universities from across the nation.
NASA managers and mentors nominated the recipients from the hundreds of interns and fellows engaged in research and education opportunities across the agency. The NASA Student Ambassadors initiative further recognizes exceptional students.
"To ensure success in meeting future exploration goals, the agency requires greater depth of knowledge and pursuit of innovation than ever before," said Joyce Winterton, assistant administrator for Education at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "NASA and the nation must adapt to the changing landscape and develop new strategies to cultivate its future workforce."
Members of the NASA Student Ambassadors virtual community will interact with the agency while sharing information, making professional connections, and collaborating with peers. They also will represent NASA in a variety of venues and help the agency inspire and engage future interns and fellows.
The community's Web site provides participants access to tools needed to serve as a NASA Student Ambassador. The site provides strategic communication opportunities, the latest NASA news, science and technology updates, blogs, and announcements. It contains member profiles, forums, polls, NASA contact information, links to agency mission related communications' research and career resources.
"The virtual community Web site is an outreach vehicle to the nation's students as well as a way to engage exceptional Gen-Y NASA students," said Mabel Matthews, lead for the community and manager of Higher Education at NASA Headquarters. "This activity is a leading effort to help NASA attract, engage, educate and employ the next generation."
With this and the agency's other college and university programs, NASA will identify and develop the critical skills and capabilities needed to achieve its mission. This program is tied directly to the agency's major education goal of strengthening the future STEM workforce for NASA and the nation.
For more information about the NASA Student Ambassadors, including a list of the new 2010 ambassadors, and an interactive map of the United States that identifies the current ambassadors, visit:
For more information about education at NASA, visit:
View my blog's last three great articles....
- High School Students Can Send Experiments Flying w...
- NASA Climatologist Gavin Schmidt Discusses the Sur...
- Making Medical Grade Saline in Space
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High School Students Can Send Experiments Flying with NASA
NASA is inviting student teams nationwide to design and build an experiment or technology demonstration to be sent to the near space environment of the stratosphere, an altitude of 100,000 feet. The Balloonsat High Altitude Flight competition will launch on a NASA weather balloon May 25-27 in Cleveland.
To participate, student teams in grades nine through 12 must submit a research or flight demonstration proposal to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland by Friday, Feb. 19. Teams of four or more may pursue a wide variety of topics in this competition, including science and weather observations, remote sensing and image processing. A panel of engineers and scientists at Glenn will evaluate and select four top-ranked proposals by Friday, March 5.
The top four teams will be awarded travel expenses and up to $1,000 to develop their flight experiment or technology demonstration. Teams will participate in three flight days to release, track and recover their experiments. In addition, students will tour Glenn facilities and present their findings at Glenn's Balloonsat Symposium. All participants visiting NASA must be U.S. citizens.
NASA will host an informational webcast about the competition Jan. 27 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. EST. A link to the webcast and additional information about Balloonsat High Altitude Flight is available at:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/balloonsat
This and similar education programs help NASA attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines critical to the agency's future missions.
NASA's student Balloonsat competition is sponsored by Teaching From Space, a NASA Education Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Educational Programs Office at Glenn and the Ohio Space Grant Consortium.
For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:
For information about NASA's Glenn Research Center, visit:
View my blog's last three great articles....
- NASA Climatologist Gavin Schmidt Discusses the Sur...
- Making Medical Grade Saline in Space
- 2009: Second Warmest Year on Record; End of Warmes...
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Blankenship of Big Coal Debates Robert Kennedy Jr.
photo by Chance Lane - RFK, Jr. and Big Coal CEO Don Blankenship debated at the University of Charleston.
Robert Kennedy Jr. is a passionate environmentalist and attorney, who has been arguing for years that coal is destroying Appalachia and the climate. Don Blankenship is the head of the biggest coal company in the south, Massey Energy, responsible for coal mining mountaintop removal and the mining of much of the coal that is polluting the country. Kennedy has been publicly speaking out against Massey and Blankenship for years, and the two finally debated on January 22nd at the University of Charleston. It’s a fascinating and maddening debate, and I am in awe of people who can debate polluters like Blankenship, who is a climate criminal, and keep their cool. Kennedy remains logical and puts forth his case very well and very passionately. He has 100X the facts that Blankenship has.
Download or Listen to the whole debate here. (81.5 MB)
Blankenship puts forth what’s best for his business: Spin and BS about national security. Coal has nothing to do with our national security and it certainly does not improve quality of life when its waste is so toxic and poisonous (even radioactive) and the use of it is destroying the climate. Blankenship is also under the impression that we need to use coal and that he’s doing some type of public service. Quite the opposite! Kennedy does a good job of describing the damage that mountaintop removal does.
More information from West Virginia’s public radio:
“While Administration officials work to determine new policies to oversee mountaintop removal permits, a much more public debate on the subject was held Thursday in Charleston. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr. faced off on coal, climate change and the nation’s energy future.
Thousands packed the auditorium and tuned in on television and radio for the debate at the University of Charleston. Much of the debate was predictable, as Blankenship and Kennedy stuck to talking points. Kennedy argued that the controversial practice of mountaintop removal is not only bad for the environment, but is so efficient that it’s eliminated most of West Virginia’s mining jobs.
“Don often talks about his concern for the workers of this state,” Kennedy said. “But this is an industry that through the ruthless pursuit of total efficiency has eliminated 90,000 jobs.”
Read more here.
The Nook and Barnes & Noble’s Super-Polite, Absolutely Awful Customer Service [Nook]
The Consumerist, as always, is right on top of Barnes & Noble's recent Nook-related failings. Yes, people are still without their Nook, and yes, customer service woes are still running rampant at the fledgling book retailer.
You see, the $100 gift cards promised to customers if their Nook did not arrive by Christmas? That's good customer service. However, those $100 cards have yet to arrive in many cases. That's bad customer service.
Worse still, blogger Jesse Vincent has been writing dutifully about the cards and more since the holidays, and things haven't gotten any better. Broken promises, vanishing orders—all there, and all indicative of a retailer that grossly underestimated demand for its savvy e-reader and overestimated its ability to sell them.
The silver lining? B&N customer service is super polite when they tell you your order has been canceled or disappeared or whatever. So there's that, although I'm pretty much with Kat when she says these thing will never truly hit the mainstream. [Consumerist]
Allons-me? | Bad Astronomy
Apparently, I am Tom Baker. I had guessed I’d be David Tennant, but thinking on it carefully, Baker’s a closer fit to who I am; Tennant (at least up until the last episode, feh) was who — I mean, Who — I wanted to be.
Which Doctor Who are you?
Tip o’ the big floppy hat to regular BABloggee IVAN3MAN.
Adventures in Conference Swag: GDC Attendees to Receive Free Android Phone [Gdc]
Motorola MOTOROI Might Be Headed to the U.S. After All, Courtesy T-Mobile [Cellphones]
The tumorific Motorola MOTOROI, first spotted heading to Korean shores earlier this month, could be coming Stateside soon (via T-Mobile), if a filing with the FCC is to be believed.
We brought you the details earlier this month, but for those averse to clicking here's a recap:
Running on Android 2.0, it's got native apps multitouch on that 3.7-inch WVGA screen, takes photos with an 8-megapixel camera, records video in 720p, and has an HDMI out and a T-DMB TV tuner for watching 24 of South Korea's channels. 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot are pretty decent for storage options, and just like with its older brother the Droid, it comes with a docking station.
The smoking guns, if you will, that say this is the same Korea-only MOTOROI we spied earlier are: The FCC filing does not make mention of a slider. It also uses the Sholes codename for this phone. Then there's the "T-Mobile friendly 1700 / 2100MHz HSPA," says Engadget. Triple word score.
These bits of evidence, taken together, all but confirm T-Mobile will be the carrier that brings the phone to the U.S., possibly by March. [FCC via Cell Phone Signal via Engadget]
