Updated Time: The Andre Controvera Show Presents:
From Right Guy:
Tony Sutton, chairman of the Minnesota GOP will be discussing Michele Bachmann's controversial tenure in the State assembly and her future as a presidential candidate.
Doug Hill, founder of Laisez-faire Books will be discussing books he publishes.
More guests to be announced.
Host Andre Traversa, Co-host Jim Lagnese
Showtime 8:00PM CST
Call in at 949-203-4821 or stream here.
Listen to our interview with Michele Bachmann here.
(By Phyllis Klosinski of Brown County) This Indiana Constitution language is explicit, limiting and deliberate, it controls government not YOU. “No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.” The Libertarian Party Platform adheres to the Constitutional constraints protecting YOUR [...]
Can the government wage war on the behalf of Americans without their consent? From the Right: Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com From the Left:
The Libertarian Party of Indiana’s State Convention is coming to La Porte, Indiana on April 30, 2011. The LPIN has a week-end full of events planned at the Best Western Hotel and Conference Center. More than 2000 libertarians have been invited to attend. With the desire for a maximum of freedom and a minimum of [...]
(By Kenn Gividen, LPIN 2004 Gubernatorial Candidate) Some call it “guerilla marketing.” It’s out-of-the-mainstream marketing that energizes your core efforts with little or no expense. Most anyone can do; even if those who are strapped for time. Like a myriad of tiny snowflakes that combine to make a blizzard, guerilla marketing strategies can interact to [...]
We sent out a press release this afternoon with a memo regarding a Constitutional ban on gay marriage. After further investigation we have determined that we were the victim of a similar hoax as the one that befell Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett last week. Our party cares deeply about accountability and transparency, so [...]
WASHINGTON – Giving little thought to the lessons of history, President Obama has begun attacking Libya with the full support of virtually every member of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans. Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle issued the following statement today: “President Obama’s decision to order military attacks on Libya is only surprising to those who [...]
Authors: V. Buat, E. Giovannoli, T. T. Takeuchi, S. Heinis, F.-T. Yuan, D. Burgarella, S. Noll and J. Iglesias-Páramo.<br />Astronomy & Astrophysics Vol. 529 , page A22<br />Published online: 22/03/2011<br />
Keywords:
galaxies: star formation ; dust, extinction ; infrared: galaxies ; ultraviolet: galaxies.
Authors: H. V. ?enavc?, G. A. J. Hussain, D. O’Neal and J. R. Barnes.<br />Astronomy & Astrophysics Vol. 529 , page A11<br />Published online: 21/03/2011<br />
Keywords:
techniques: imaging spectroscopy ; stars: activity ; binaries: eclipsing.
In 1867, two astronomers working with the 40 cm Foucault telescope at the Paris observatory discovered three new stars in the constellation Cygnus. These stars were showing emission bands along the spectrum where they were “supposed to be” showing absorption bands. The astronomers were Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet, and they had found an enigma which they named Wolf-Rayet stars.
NASA/JPL Cal-Tech the Baby Boom Galaxy, known as a Wolf-Rayet Galaxy due to its massive activity
Now, very quickly; Wolf-Rayet stars are not a type of star so much as the evolutionary stage of a type of star. Did that make sense? The type of star likely to evolve into a Wolf-Rayet must have a mass in excess of 20 solar, stellar winds in speeds up to 2,000 km/s, and be very hot — surface temperatures in the neighborhood of 25,000 K to 50,000 K. Wolf-Rayet stars have the potential to supernova to a black hole, releasing gamma ray bursts from their poles in the process.
Wolf-Rayet 104 diagram, Dr. Peter Tuthill, University of Sydney, School of Physics
That takes care of the background, now enter Wolf-Rayet 104. Discovered in 1998, WR104 is a dynamic binary system about 8,000 ly from Earth. As the Wolf-Rayet star spins around its class OB companion it releases matter into the interstellar medium, giving it one of its nicknames: A smoking chimney.
NASA/Kepler Dr. Peter Tuthill, University of Sydney
WR104 is extremely luminous. A side-by-side comparison of WR104 to Sol is about the same as a side-by-side comparison of Sol and Luna.
When you look at the Keck images of WR104, you are looking down on one of its poles watching matter get flung away into that spiral shape, like looking down on a water sprinkler. That’s really cool, except for one small detail: Wolf-Rayet stars tend to produce gamma ray bursts when they collapse down into black holes, and gamma ray bursts (GRB) are emitted from the poles.
Hmmmmm.
James Bond as portrayed by Pierce Brosnan
As you can imagine, a lot of astronomers are looking at WR104. More intensive studies seem to indicate that we aren’t going to be “spot on”, but off as much as 16 degrees. That helps, but those same studies are showing WR104 may be as close as 5,000 ly.
Hmmmmm.
Whatever happens, WR104 and its massive companion are going to supernova, and soon (astronomically speaking). Were it to form a gamma ray burst when it happens, and were the Earth right in its sights, that’s the end of the story. We’ve talked about GRBs before.
Now, if we’re NOT right on the bull’s eye but far enough away to stay safe, that would be some kind of cosmic event… and we would have front row seats. Whichever, WR104 has all the mystery, suspense, and action of an “A-List” thriller.
Got that popcorn ready?
Ok maybe it’s not a parade. Still it’s good stuff even if at least some of these people are about to collect unemployment. It appears the “hope and change” is working, just not like some thought it would. Ah well, you know the old saying: be careful what you wish for. 
Click here to view the embedded video.
This time-lapse video shows employees at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., taking a few moments to assemble for a historic aerial photo outside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Thousands of workers stood side-by-side to form an outline of a space shuttle. The event was organized in honor of the Space Shuttle Program’s 30-year legacy.
Starfield from Dawn, 21 Mar 11. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
It’s a starfield! This is a great picture and was taken by the Dawn spacecraft’s framing camera. The camera was powered up for a test after a six month hibernation along with some of the other instruments on board.
Back to trying to find this view on my planetarium software, easier said than done with no targeting data. Actually if you’ve ever done the matching thing, it can be very challenging even when you know the area.
Oh, if you have a planetarium program or better yet your own pictures of starfields and want to try mapping them out OR you just want to see targeted parts of the sky or objects like M57 say, give The Aladin Sky Atlas a try (I use the JAVA applet on the right), you will find the manual useful. Note: you may get a security certificate notice, always have, probably always will, I’ve never had a problem and I’ve been going there for years. Also this is for deep sky objects so stick to galaxies, nebulae and the like.
Did you get a chance to look at the rising “super moon”? From what I’ve seen, it’s definitely living up to its expectation. Take a look at this NASA image, shot as the moon was rising beside the Lincoln Memorial:
NASA full perigee moon over Washington DC - the Lincoln Memorial
Now, if THAT didn’t make your jaw drop, these next two surely will:
Full perigee moon - Harry Mason, all rights reserved (image used with permission) - great enlargement, too
Full moon superimposed over perigee full moon - Harry Mason, all rights reserved, (image used with permission) - check out the enlargement
These images are courtesy of their author, Harry Mason. That gorgeous full moon shot was taken 03/19/11 at 12:51am, and the earlier full moon used to show the difference in sizes was taken 01/18/11 at about 6pm. Both shots were taken with Harry’s hand-held Cannon SX200IS. I spent a lot of time on Harry’s website, looking at the world through his eyes. I’d recommend the trip.
Thanks for letting me use the images, Harry. I’m seriously impressed, and looking forward to your future work.
YAY!
Coming tonight at 7:41 EDT. Goodbye winter!!
Click here to view the embedded video.
Hope everybody got to see the moon last night or this morning! We had clear skies on both ends, I’ve still got to get batteries to pull the pictures off the camera as I ran the thing flat last night. Too bad too I think the pictures would have been better this morning.
Using the scope and it’s camera is still out of the question because rolling the roof off the observatory is still beyond my limits. Not that it would have mattered too much, it would have been pretty meaningless to image the moon with them, there’s no scale and due to trees the east horizon is out and I can’t see to the west.
Lot’s of people got pictures though. I am happy so many took the opportunity to check it out!!
Did you watch the video? Curiosity is a good sized rover!
You can watch the construction of the actual Mars-bound rover that will be launched this autumn.
Recently I blogged about how the mere existence of whales might be an important clue to treating cancer. That post has drawn many readers, and many questions in the comment thread.
Happily, the authors of the review I described–Carlo Maley of the University of California, San Francisco, and Aleah Caulin of the University of Pennsylvania–have joined the thread. They’ve answered the first set of reader questions and promise to come back to respond to the rest. Further proof of the majesty of blogs…
1) First, a post from the past: 10 questions for Jim Crow. Arguably the doyen of modern population geneticists. Take a look at who he’s had as graduate students or post-docs, and there’s a high probability there is someone you know of, you’ve met, or you know of by reputation (at least if you have some association with pop gen).
2) Weird search query of the week: “hot arab ass.”
3) Comment of the week, in response to “Puzzling the odds of disease risk”:
What would be interesting (and very simple) to see is this:
Take DNA of all the dead people with good medical history and see if aggregate of all the various risks predicts time and/or cause of death with any reliability. $200K buys N=2,000 which is not unreasonable for entities that have access to lots of dead peoples’ DNA.
4) And finally, your weekly fluff fix:
“Sexual selection via mate choice may have influenced the evolution of women’s breast morphology. We conducted an image-based questionnaire quantifying and comparing the preferences of men from Papua New Guinea (PNG), Samoa, and New Zealand (NZ) for images of women’s breast size, breast symmetry, areola size, and areolar pigmentation. Results showed that men from PNG preferred larger breasts to a greater extent than men from Samoa and NZ, providing some support for the hypothesis that men from subsistence living cultures have a greater preference for morphological cues indicative of caloric reserves. Symmetrical breasts were most attractive to men in each culture. However, preferences were highest among NZ men, followed by men from Samoa, and were lowest among men from PNG. These results did not support the hypothesis that people living in higher pathogen environments have a greater preference for traits indicative of pathogen resistance and developmental stability. Large areolae were preferred among men from PNG, and to a lesser extent in Samoa, while in NZ men preferred medium-sized areolae. Thus, men’s preferences for women’s areolar size appear to be highly culturally specific. Darkly pigmented areolae were most attractive to men ...
This is painful to watch, but in terms of media scientific illiteracy, also highly instructive (h/t CJR):
