another of murphy's laws

... according to murpheys-laws.com:

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.

visualizing music: claire de lune

here's a cool visualization of one of the most wonderful songs ever written: claire de lune from claude debussy's suite bergamasque. while it's a mesmerizing accompaniment to the beautiful music, somehow it doesnt represent what i intuitively feel when playing the piece. i find that the visuals are upside-down, because i experience the high pitched keys to be on the right, which should be on the bottom of the screen. but i imagine it might be awkward for the lowest of the horizontal lines to represent the highest notes. anyway... enjoy!


created by stephen malinowski using the music animation machine



created by myself

carnival of space #64

the beatles fan at music of the spheres is celebrating the fact that the carnival of space is turning 64 this week... by hosting! there are some great astonomy articles over there if you're looking for a little reading.

young me - now me

ze frank introduced a fun contest called youngme - nowme. i picked out a picture to recreate a while ago, but was a little busy and then i forgot to stage the photoshoot when my sister came to town! but today.... we finally did it!



here's cori's collection!




i highly recommend trying out this project... it's fun!! or you can check out the official winners of the youngme - nowme contest.

little areya lou hoo

my very own squeezable cindy lou hoo!!

cincinnati radio show!

my trip to UC last week was very nice. they kindly took me to an indian restaurant for lunch and then i sat in a room with the astronomy undergraduate students and talked about their research projects until the time came to give my talk. it's neat to see so many undergrad students interested in astronomy at UC: when i was there, i was the only one! here's a picture from way back then...


the talk went well i thought. i received a lot of questions from the physicists who have more recently become interested in astronomy. i tried to skip some of the details of methodology i use to derive quantities, like morphologies of galaxies, but of course attentive listeners jump right on what you don't tell them and ask anyway!

after the talk, one of the newer astronomy students, davin, mentioned to me that he's read this blog before! i was surprised and flattered and even more excited to find out that he hosts a science-y radio show on a local station - WAIF 88.3! i gladly accepted his invitation to do an hour interview this wednesday from 1-2pm EST, so tune in if you have the time and interest!

cycle the grass away!

exercise, a nice yard, and no ridiculously loud or wasteful motor.... brilliance!


unfortunately, the creator is unknown :(

simon's cat

as a cat person, i find this hilarious! i imagine it's pretty funny for non-cat people as well! meet simon's cat, created by tandem films:

periodic table - sodium

theres a brand new video series about each element in the periodic table up on youtube! the folks creating these entertaining and informative tidbits are located at my future academic affiliation: the university of nottingham!!

my favorite video so far is about sodium...



one guy in the science team can certainly be inducted into the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists!

vegan zombie

hahaha!

link to t-shirt.

jupiter by the moon - july 2008

here are a couple pictures of bright jupiter next to the moon tonight from my mom's porch in ohio!

cassini continues...

the cassini space craft that is floating around saturn has finished its 4 year mission. many fantastic images have come from this mission, and luckily for us, cassini started an extended 2-year mission on july 1, 2008!!

here are a couple anniversary shots recently released....


in this picture you can see the moon, mimas, in the top left and you can see the shadow of the moon, enceladus, on the surface of saturn.


in both images you can see the shadows of the rings on the northern hemisphere of the planet. over the next year, we will see less and less of the ring shadows, both from cassini and from earth, as the plane of the rings lines up with the sun. the ring shadows line up exactly with saturn's horizon during saturns vernal equinox on august 11, 2009! afterwards, the shadows will appear on the southern hemisphere of the planet.

you can still see saturn in the western horizon at sunset, with mars nearby!

jupiter in july

jupiter rises in the southest at sunset these days. it's the brightest thing in the night sky, other than the moon! this wednesday night, jupiter rises just to the upper leeft of the early-full moon, and remains close in the sky thursday night as well.

mercury's caloris basin

another cool image of mercury taken in january from the messenger space craft. this enhanced color image shows the caloris basin.


found at APOD.

blast to the past

i'm off to my old undergraduate institution today to give a talk for the physics department - all my old professors! i'm a little nervous about it because i have a vivid memory of them ripping apart the research of the only astronomer i remember visiting the department. its amazing how differently the details of the two fields are, even though all the phenomena are based on the same fundamental properties. it has been interesting to write this talk for a physics audience, since they don't have the astronomical intuition i have assumed in previous professional talks. but at the same time, i feel like they are a bunch of proud parents, so i'm not really that worried!

i'll try to track down a picture of myself during my undergrad physics days to share (i'll have to scan a picture because those were pre-digi-cam days!). i sort of satisfied the "hippy" stereotype: with super long hair, tie-dye t-shirts, listening to the grateful dead and lots of bluegrass, camping constantly, etc... i spent my days in the physics department working thru homework problems with a few of the guys in my class, and spent my evenings thinking about other things entirely. i'm curious to hear what impressions my old professors had of me at that time! should be interesting! i hope i remember my way around campus! haha.

the hoop is on fire

more skills from the soul fire tribe. here's lara rocking the fire flying hula hoop! the move near the end with her arm up and her head sideways under the hoop blows me away every time!



and here's ari spinning his fire staff! the way the music lines up with his moves in this video is pretty amazing!

tattoo possibility

i might very well get a tattoo (very) soon. i have a tentative plan, but i'm open for suggestions (i know, i hear my mother saying "but why?"). send ideas for... anything.

family cuteness overload 2008

mars and saturn

has anyone been able to see or get pictures of the mars, saturn, and moon alignment this weekend? hopefully the clouds will clear tonight so i can take my fantastic green laser pointer outside and show my nephew the big dipper!

my tiniest new friend, vivienne

sometimes it's so easy to fall in love.

soul fire tribe

here's my sister spinning her poi fire for the soul fire tribe in yellow springs, ohio! pretty crazy spectacle at night!



you'll also notice some cameos by my favorite big dipper, (nephew) keldan and my favorite little dipper, (niece) areya!

keyless in ohio

i moved out of my office, my apartment, and my life in austin. i sold my scooter, my bike and very nearly everything i own. yesterday i arrived in ohio, keyless. i'll have no keys for almost two months...!!

yesterday i met my best friend's tiny little 5.5 lb. baby girl. she's adorable, and poops way more than i thought a less-than-6-pound baby would!

tomorrow i'll see my nephew and niece for the first time since christmas. i've missed my favorite little dippers and cant wait to play!

i'm here for july enjoying my family and the flowers. i have a one-way ticket to england in august, and no place reserved to stay when i get there.... yet.

absolute craziness!

night sky july 2008

JUNE ENDS tonight with a very nice alignment of saturn, regulus, and mars as shown in the image below. the three will be pretty low on the western horizon and then continue to set, so you'll have to get out early to spot them.


the new moon is wednesday, JULY 2nd, so the skies will be nice a dark to view the planetary alignment!

on JULY 4th, the earth is at aphelion, the farthest distance from the sun all year! its about 152,105,000 km away from our burning star, or about 3.4% farther than at perihelion.

on JULY 5th, the crescent moon sweeps past the saturn-mars pairing, creating a wonderful photographic opportunity in the west around sunset!


JULY 8th-9th is when jupiter reaches opposition, and appears the brightest in our sky. the opposition position is when the sun, earth and jupiter line up with earth in the middle... constituting jupiter's closest approach to us on earth! jupiter rises in the east after sunset and will be the brightest thing in the night sky after the moon for the next few months. you should be able to see the galilean moons of jupiter with binoculars and a steady hand!

mars continues to catch up to saturn on the ecliptic, coming within one degree of each other on JULY 10th.

enjoy!!

euro cup 2008 finale

no, it wasnt a fantastically thrilling final match of the 2008 euro cup, but i was still entertained. disappointed that my team didn't win the whole thing, but their aggressive energy at the beginning of each half gradually wore out without them scoring an actual goal! on the other hand, i was thoroughly satisfied with the winning goal (video) put forth by fernando torres... the only goal of the game. as the scoring play unfolded, i thought there was no way torres was getting around lahm with enough time to hit the ball, so i nearly missed his quick flick to goal as i reached for my beer! so quick... so great! congrats espana!




i'm sure i will now enter a small period of soccer-watching withdrawal...

good thing i'll have ample family entertainment in ohio for the entirety of july, and a whole season to look forward to once i move to the UK in august! i havent kept up much with MLS lately. any thoughts on which team i should follow? i havent chosen one yet. the obvious choice would be the nottingham forest, since that'll be my new hometown team. but what about liverpool? arsenal? thoughts?