Today’s xkcd comic takes a somewhat different stance on the plight of Spirit than I did.
Still, it’s funny how we anthropomorphize objects, especially when they are vaguely human or animal looking. Especially if they’re cute. And Spirit is very cute.
Who’s a good rover? Hmmm? You are! You’re a good rover!
At sushi happy hour on Tuesday my friend Andrew Horn asked us, “What are you not doing now that you wish you were?” (he is really into the importance of asking good questions). I said that I wanted to be working on a book and that I have long been meaning to create a Facebook group for all the students who have been to my Launching Your Career in Space workshops. Our dinner mate said he wanted to be working on a new model for sustainability in economics. Andrew leaned forward and said, “What can you do to shift those things from something you are going to work on to something you are working on right now?”
I realized that even if you are taking the smallest next action on something, it goes from being a someday, maybe in-the-future project, to something you have started! As the famous saying goes, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!” (I remember reading that on the wall in my mom’s office at the St. Rose rectory in high school).
I went home and the next morning, I got on Facebook and took the 20 minutes to make the group, I even opened and read through the outline for my book that I hadn’t looked at in over a year. Not only was I relieved to be doing things I had meant to for over a year, but I was also very excited, for what was possible, what I was capable of, who I am. It super-charged my day. We got all our Yuri’s Night LED bouncy balls, LED lapel pins and 10th annual stickers ordered, set up an e-introduction to a space workforce guru I have been wanted to meet for years, and starting talking about some exciting collaborations for promoting science with kids nationwide.
The next day I flew to Miami for annual flight attendant refresher training for Zero Gravity Corp. I was working in my hotel room, planning to go to bed early when I found out that another friend Brad Cheetham was going to be on SpaceVidCast at 10:00 pm to be interviewed about http://www.WeWantOurFuture.org. Watching it I got really inspired and energized about the cool things that my friends are up to. Too excited to go to bed I went down to the lobby to meet up with Tim Bailey and Stevie Steiner.
Stevie was regaling us with the latest stories of his company (that he does on the side of his PhD) buyaerogels.com. I was inspired by his passion and energy but most of all by the potential of game changing material science (and Yuri’s Night logo aerogels!!). The potential future there extends beyond where my imagination can see and I am excited to get to be around that and possibly even contribute to making it happen!
I finally went to bed at 2 a.m. reflecting on a thought I have been having a lot this week– that over the last 20 years I have carefully, concertedly built a world around me filled with amazing, uplifting, supportive people and that, that has made all the difference.
This is the third in a series of guest posts by Joel Barkan, a previous contributor to “The Intersection” and a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The renowned Scripps marine biologist Jeremy Jackson is teaching his famed “Marine Science, Economics, and Policy” course for what may be the last time this year (along with Jennifer Jacquet), and Joel will be reporting each week on the contents of the course.
Last week, I wrote about raising fish in our own backyards using aquaculture. Today, I’ll discuss fish that don’t come from farms, but instead make their way to our dinner plates from very far away: the high seas. The high seas, or international waters, are areas more than 200 miles offshore from any country and thus not regulated by any individual nation. The huge factory fishing fleets of rival nations compete on the high seas to out-fish the other boats, reenacting Garret Hardin’s famous “The Tragedy of the Commons” in the middle of the ocean.
This week, it was my turn, along with three other classmates, to present to the rest of the class about high seas fishing. We highlighted two different fishing methods: drift netting and bottom trawling. Drift nets pluck fish like tuna and swordfish from the top of the water column, while bottom trawls drag the seafloor for valuable halibut and orange roughy. Both methods are indiscriminate: you’re almost as likely to catch a common dolphin in a drift net as an albacore tuna, and bottom trawling is akin to plowing a whole forest just to harvest a few edible mushrooms. Both sound pretty bad, right? Consider this: high seas drift netting was banned in 1991 by a UN resolution, but several countries still bottom trawl within international waters to this day.
The moratorium on high seas drift net fishing succeeded because most countries agreed that the fishery’s immense bycatch was unsustainable. In class, we discussed what might need to happen to raise the necessary two-thirds majority for a similar UN resolution on destructive high seas bottom trawling. Striking images of charismatic animals like dolphins and albatrosses tangled in nets made drift netting an easy target for a moratorium. How can we raise awareness about a dark ecosystem no one sees and obscure species like deep-water coral that most people don’t care about?
A potential solution may be tied to that familiar influential source: money. Countries like Spain, Russia, Iceland, and a few others continue to bottom trawl on the high seas because they profit from it. Opposition from these nations has stymied efforts to ban deep sea trawling in international waters. Can we give these countries economic incentives to change their ways? Perhaps the deep sea trawlers would be willing to employ new gear types or limit their trawling to State waters if a wealthy country such as the U.S. or Australia subsidized their gear overhauls.
It’s obvious that conservation takes a backseat to political and economic influences when dealing with multilateral agreements. Let’s hope the superpowers can work something out before we turn our shared deep sea ecosystems into wastelands.
We are seeking an engineer with strong structural knowledge and strong soils knowledge. Does any one out there know of someone looking for a new position in the New York City area? I would appreciate any input on this question.
Hi, I am trying to find an exothermic chemical reaction that I could get to reach a temperature of 160 degrees F. I would like for it to be with relatively safe chemicals. If not please indicate. Thank you for the help.
NASA to Review Human Spaceflight, NY Times
"The expansive, multimonth technical study, still in the preliminary stages, might be similar to the Exploration Systems Architecture Study that in 2005 settled on the design of the agency's program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020."
Keith's note: Forget the long-rumored, ponderous "ESAS 2" activity folks. It is not really needed. Charlie Bolden and a small team have already (quietly) put the basic architecture in place. Think LEO, cis-lunar, near-Earth, and inner solar system utilization and exploration of space - all with a significant, paradigm-shifting emphasis on the use and participation of the private sector and (eventually) partnerships with other nations. Look back a few years at previous "architectures" and you will get the basic idea. All Bolden's team needed to wait for was the final word from the White House.
After half a decade, NASA's human space flight program may have unfortunately "lost the Moon" -- but it may be about to gain the solar system - that is, if Congress wants it to happen. Stay tuned.
Keith's update: Let me add (with a prod from Anne Spudis) is that I think it is short-sighted to exclude the Moon as part of the so-called "Flexible Path". We have unfinished business on the Moon - and the resources needed to fully utilize the inner solar system are waiting there for us to utilize. One would hope that the "Flexible Path" is truly "flexible" and not just this Administration's euphemism for "not ESAS".
The hunt for fusion energy is one that has been plagued by false starts and overly-optimistic announcements. This week, however, researchers at the National Ignition Facility in California announced a major new step: firing all of its 192 lasers together for the first time, and channeling the beam into an area no bigger than a pencil eraser.
That tiny target is called the hohlraum. It’s a gold-plated cylinder intended to contain the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, which would fuse together during a potential fusion reaction. In this test, documented in the journal Science this week, the 192 lasers heated up the hohlraum to “only” about 6 million degrees Fahrenheit. But, team member Jeffrey Atherton says, the NIF is working its way up to the really powerful reactions. “The point is that we were doing it at a scale that’s about 20 times larger than has been done, with a laser power that accordingly is about 20 times higher than has been done, with a precision and efficiency that hasn’t been done before,” he said [MSNBC].
Particularly important is the fact that plasma in the hohlraum didn’t block the materials from absorbing energy from the lasers, one of the key problems some researchers had predicted for fusion projects. Instead, the cylinder was able to absorb 95 percent of the energy. Says Mike Dunne of the U.K.’s Central Laser Facility: “I can’t overstate how dramatic a step that is. Many people a year ago were saying the project would be dead by now” [BBC News] .
As the NIF’s name would imply, what the scientists are really after is the ignition of a true thermonuclear reaction. And Atherton, an eternal optimist, says they could start ignition tests this summer, now that the laser tests have proven successful. To achieve that thermonuclear reaction, the scientists will attempt to use the lasers’ immensely powerful beams to reach temperatures of more than 200 million degrees Fahrenheit and pressures millions of times greater than Earth’s atmosphere – conditions found only in the interior of the sun and stars [San Francisco Chronicle].
But, as with all fusion energy project, don’t expect too much too fast. The classic joke is that fusion is the “energy source of the future – and always will be” [MSNBC].
Related Content:
80beats: At the National Ignition Facility, Let the Fusion Begin! Hopefully.
80beats: Countdown to Nuclear Fusion: National Ignition Facility Warms Up
DISCOVER: Countdown to Fusion: National Ignition Facility in Pictures [photo gallery]
DISCOVER: The Laser To End All Lasers
Image: National Ignition Facility, Lawrence Livermore National Lab. The interior of the target chamber.
Why the leakage current is measured in high voltage DC test for power cable
This was posted as a discussion, but got no bites. I'll try it as a question here. This power plant is considering converting a generator to synchronous condenser operation. If anyone has experience with this, I would like to hear about it: challenges, cost, operational issues, maintenance issues, e
PETA to hold protest at NASA Ames against monkey experiment, SJ Mercury News
"Six demonstrators plan to be in front of NASA Ames' main gates at noon today, carrying signs that read "No Tax $ for Animal Abuse" and "Stop Radiation Tests on Monkeys," according to a PETA statement."
Brian D. McLaren on having a new understanding of Jesus' message in an age of terrorism and religious conflict.
From CBC | Technology & Science News:
India has announced plans to put two astronauts into Earth orbit in 2016, which would make it the fourth country to put a manned mission to space. The India Space Research Organization is seeking 124 billion rupees ($2.8 billion Cdn) for the
From CBC | Technology & Science News:
Scientists have discovered a new way of detecting gamma ray bursts while using radio telescopes to observe supernovas. The researchers say this may provide new clues in understanding how some supernovas explode and how they may be related to
From mental_floss Blog:
There is a glacier in Antarctica that seems to be weeping a river of blood. It's one of the continent's strangest features, and it's located in one of the continent's strangest places — the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a huge, ice-free zone and one of the wor
The Cardozo Law Review de novo online journal just published my essay entitled "The Potentially Expansive Reach of McDonald v. Chicago: Enabling the Privileges or Immunities Clause," in a feature it entitles "Firearms, Inc." The essay may be seen here.
The essay briefly reviews the sad history of how the Supreme Court buried the Privileges or Immunities clause in 1873, just five years after its birth; then offers a possible doctrinal approach were the Court to move forward in finally giving proper effect to the Privileges or Immunities clause.
[Update: I'm getting notes from people saying that the site linked below has some NSFW content on it. I didn't see that when I posted this; the link itself is rated G and quite safe, but be warned if you click anywhere else.]
A while back I posted a link to a nifty interactive graphic that let’s you zoom down from human scales to that of the atom. In that post, I said I wish someone would make one that goes out to the size of the Universe, too.
My wish has been answered. NewGrounds is a Flash animation portal, and a user by the handle of Fotoshop has created a wondrous and lovely interactive tool to show you the relative sizes of things in the Universe, from the largest galaxies down to the quantum foam. I don’t know what else to say about it except This. Freaking. Rocks.
You can use the slider along the bottom to change the scale, and see where different objects fall. Unlike the famous "Powers of Ten" movie, you’re not touring the Universe or moving through space; this just shows how relatively big things are. It’s really very well done, and gives you a good sense of things. My favorite part is on the smallest end, when you have to go through several factors of ten with nothing happening to get to the Planck scale, the smallest scale in the Universe. It’s really quite a forbidding notion.
I even like the music (though I don’t recognize it; anyone know?). : )
Well done, Fotoshop!
Tip o’ the meter stick to Tocsin.
From FOX News | Space & Technology:
Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.
This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the
I,m a instrumentation tech looking for a calculator or computor modeling application for doing tank linearization models for odd shaped tanks. I am tired of doing all the math and the time required to manually figure these things out. Just wondering if someone has created software for this.
Tan
From EETimes:
Semprius, Inc., and Siemens Industry, Inc., have entered into a joint development agreement to co-develop and deploy plug-and-play demonstration systems based on Semprius' Solar Module Arrays and Siemens' automation and control components. Sol
I want to pause today with NASA to honor our astronauts who lost their lives furthering the cause of space exploration and discovery. Today, Kennedy Director Bob Cabana will lay a wreath at the Space Mirror Memorial in honor of these brave people… gone too soon. Let us never forget.
On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chafee were working in the Apollo 1 space capsule atop the launch pad when a fire broke out inside the capsule. Neither the astronauts nor the ground crew were able to open the door to the capsule. Ground crew monitoring communications were forced to listen to these brave men as they tried to escape.
On January 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after launch, a booster engine failed on the Space Shuttle Challenger. As the world watched in horror, we lost seven very special people. We will never forget Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnick, Ellison Onuzuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
On February 1, 2003, with only 16 minutes until landing, Mission Control lost contact with the Space Shuttle Columbia. After a successful mission, Columbia broke up on re-entry, and we lost Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laural Clark.
Requiescant in pace.
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Space Shuttle image by Irish Barren on Photobucket
