astropixie

what is a shooting star?

2012-01-30T14:11:00.000+11:00

i mentioned a couple years ago that the band they might be giants released a kids album called here comes science. i was reminded of this by several people after i put out a call on twitter for astronomy-themed kids songs.

what is a shooting star is one of my favorites from that album:

there is also the galaxy song by eric idle, of monty python fame.

and, of course, there is my favorite song to sing with kids: "twinkle, twinkle little star." the melody actually comes from twleve variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" by wolfgang amadeus mozart. the same melody is also used for the "alphabet song" and "ba ba black sheep!"

if you are so inclined, you can download the original mozart variations for free. i have found it fascinating, and challenging, to play through his progression of subtle changes to the familiar melody.

are there any other astronomy-themed kids songs out there that you know of?

intense aurora up north

2012-01-29T11:42:00.000+11:00

as a result of a huge solar flare that occurred last week, energetic particles from the sun have shot out all over the solar system causing spectacular auroras on earth!

here is the view of the solar flare from NASA'a SOHO satellite. the video includes a bit of explanation, or read phil plait's explanation here.

when those electrically charged solar wind particles come barreling toward the us, the earth's magnetic field naturally guides the particles to the north and south magnetic poles, where they interact with gas in earth's upper atmosphere. the gas glows as a result.

here are some of the resulting views over northern norway. the green glow comes from molecular oxygen in our atmosphere. incredible!

Auroras 22.01.12 Birtavarre Norway from Ørjan Bertelsen on Vimeo.

science adventure

2012-01-27T05:28:00.000+11:00

a nicely displayed quote by the legendary astronomer edwin hubble:

spotted at luminous red nova.

cincinnati observatory news

2012-01-25T07:28:00.000+11:00

just received the eNewsletter from the cincinnati observatory.

a big thanks to them for hosting the event there last weekend!

cincinnati observatory

2012-01-24T12:37:00.002+11:00

over the weekend, i gave a public talk at the old observatory in my home town. strike that - i gave TWO public talks in a row at the cincinnati observatory, because the interest in the originally scheduled single talk was so positive (thanks family ;)

established in 1842, the cincinnati observatory remains the oldest working observatory in the entire USA!

the observatory is a cute little old building that sits on top of mt. adams.

former president john quincy adams laid the cornerstone of the original observatory in the 1840s, and the hill has been known as mt. adams ever since (i never knew that!). the current observatory is located on mt. lookout.

it was cold the night of my talks, and a huge freezing rain storm passed through the previous night. i had to scrape 1.5 inches of ice off the windshield of the car before leaving my mom's house.

each blade of grass was frozen inside a layer of ice!

icicles on the water fountains...

here is one of the lovely old refracting telescopes housed at the observatory. it was overcast that night, but i hope folks will go back again to look through the ancient glass.

the talks went well, i thought, and i really enjoyed sharing some of the astronomy knowledge i've gained during my studies and travels, with my family and friends back home. what fun!

einstein painted

2012-01-23T01:56:00.000+11:00

it's yet another case of not being able to track down the original source of this painting through tumblr, but i spotted it from fresh photons and i like it.

milky way above the himalaya

2012-01-21T10:39:00.000+11:00

i'm incredibly impressed by the photography of jan kovoy! admire more photos at his website or on flickr.

this is a shot of the milky way galaxy streaming perfectly through a valley in the himalaya mountains.

this is a galaxy

2012-01-19T03:24:00.000+11:00

here is a nice little video produced by andrew pontzen for the BBC's star gazing TV programme.

austin texas

2012-01-16T17:02:00.003+11:00

while i visited texas primarily for the american astronomical society meeting, i enjoyed some other aspects of one of my favorite cities in the world as well...

new year's eve.

i forgot how much they say y'all here, y'all!

an old tradition revived with a new years day swim in barton springs.

yee haw!

can't beat good BBQ (havent put the sauce on yet in this photo...)

drive-through banking.

live acoustic music soothes my soul. we saw sarah jarosz at gruene hall...

a true small town texas music venue ;)

food trucks and trailers have taken over the city. i think it's a creative and tasty way to support small business and keep austin weird.

did the world really need giant inflatable rasta hats with dreads?

the historic driskell hotel bar.

queso, margarita, and several kinds of salsa!!

happy happy yum yum.

if you need me...

2012-01-16T03:12:00.000+11:00

link

219th AAS astronomy meeting

2012-01-14T04:27:00.000+11:00

this week i attended the 219th american astronomical society meeting held in austin, texas. almost 3000 astronomers participated in the event, sharing research results, learning new science, meeting distant collaborators, interviewing for jobs, (eating tex-mex and BBQ) and catching up with old friends.

i gave a talk on wednesday about my reserach on the star-forming properties of galaxies in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. it was a 5 minute talk, so not a whole lot of time, but a couple interesting discussions sparked from it afterwards.

a highlight of the meeting for me was a talk given by former NASA astronaut, steve hawley, about the history of human spaceflight. he flew on five shuttle missions, including STS-31, which deployed the hubble space telescope into orbit around the earth!

his talk was casual and joking and he shared many anecdotes from his experiences. during the first few human space flights, the astronauts would be in orbit for a very short time, and experience an uncomfortable stomach sickness that they called "space adaptation syndrome." they only learned later that after a couple days, astronauts gets over space sickness!

he also told us that the programming computers used on the space shuttles, called High-order Assembly Language or HAL, were about 0.005 percent as powerful as an Xbox 360!

i had goosebumps several times during his presentation - as i always do whenever it hits me just how many challenges there were to sending humans into space in such a short time frame! at the end of his talk, hawley received a standing ovation from our crowd of ~3000 astronomers. well deserved, indeed.

for more science highlights revealed at the meeting, see the complete coverage from space.com and the top AAS stories from wired.com.

unfortunately, the meeting ended on a sad note, as yesterday we heard the news of the untimely and sudden death of oxford professor steven rawlings. i will write more about this soon, as he was a great man, a collaborator, and a friend. but for now, i am dealing with the shock of the loss and my feelings of sadness, and send my thoughts out to his family and friends.

and counting

2012-01-09T03:17:00.000+11:00

this video starts out with the common story of someone taking self portraits everyday for several years, but then it takes a surprising and inspiring twist.

Jeff Harris: 4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting from We Know Music on Vimeo.

2012: no the world will not end

2012-01-05T07:33:00.003+11:00

you may have heard some people claim that the world will end in 2012. just take a moment to contemplate that: they claim the world will end on precisely december 21st, two thousand twelve.

these claims are ridiculous, not to mention vague.

and i also think it's sad, because these people are causing unnecessary stress in lives of (admittedly gullible) people. i guess someone somewhere is making money off these regularly forecast apocalyptic fairy tales or else they wouldnt come about so unceasingly.

just to be sure, i DO NOT think any of the reasons being spouted for why the world will end in 2012 are at all valid, or reasonable, or bona fide in any way. here's a nicely done video summarizing the crazy business...

for more info:

NASA's site on the issue

the bad astronomer on planet X

the size of saturn

2012-01-04T06:46:00.000+11:00

here are a few gorgeous recent photos of the ringed planet saturn.

the first was featured as an astronomy picture of the day in december.

the rings of saturn are seen from the edge here, as the nearly horizontal blue line. there shadows can be seen on the surface of the planet.

also, at the top left of the image, you can see one of the most massive storms in the solar system. it has lasted for longer than an earth year so far and it's going strong!

to get an idea of just how big saturn and its current storm are, matt andrews created the image below to show the scale of the planet compared to the US. pretty incredible!

link

fireworks and goals

2011-12-31T15:32:00.034+11:00

in honor of earth's celebration of a new calendar year, here is a galaxy image that i think looks like a big firework! NGC 1275:

and here was the massive fireworks display over sydney harbour. i love how the aerial views show the entire stretch of explosions. amazing!

hope everyone enjoys a happy and safe end to 2011!! i feel pleased as i reflect on the past year. a short summary of my twelve months of 2011:

22 talks given, 21 nights observing, 12 countries visited (depending on how you count what belongs to china), 11 papers published (2 as first author), 6 songs completed, 3 sizes lost, student loans paid off, and a flower on my frangipani tree!

what goals do you have for the next year?

i want to be able to do a pull up from a still hanging position. i want to publish 2 first-author scientific papers. i would like to finish writing a particular song that i've been working on for most of the last year. i want to write down a more coherent collection of travel stories. i want to get my heels down in the downward dog yoga pose. i want to hand-write more letters. i want to bake more bread.

here's to a successful new year, y'all! cheers!

car color wheel

2011-12-29T13:10:00.003+11:00

this colorful installation was created from 2,500 old toy cars by artist david t. waller.

more photos here.

clever christmas card

2011-12-27T16:33:00.000+11:00

but i fear that this is the shape of things to come.

card by bill lobley

pure christmas morning joy

2011-12-26T05:34:00.000+11:00

the excitement of a good book, christmas morning hair, swimming in a sea of wrapping, PJs, family :)

x-ray christmas tree

2011-12-26T04:07:00.001+11:00

when i was a kid, i didn't often make too big of an effort to search for all my christmas presents before the big day. but one year my little sister and i searched with intensity all over every inch of my parents room. we looked in the closet, behind clothes, in drawers, and then, under the bed, we found it: a nintendo entertainment system! we were so excited that we cheered to each other and did our silly dances of joy because we were moving from the old joy stick atari system into the future!

the only problem was that i am horrible at keeping a straight, un-blushed face when trying to hide a truth. to this day, i am a horrible liar. i tried with all my might to look surprised on christmas morning when we opened an NES game and then the actual system, but i'm sure my faked look of surprise gave away the secret of our sneaky, successful searching. i actually felt bad that morning because my parents didnt get to see our original thrill and happiness.

i never searched early for my presents after that year.

on the other hand, nick veasey has figured out a clever way to use his x-ray imaging skills to discover some presents under the tree:

merry christmas!

transiting santa

2011-12-23T03:42:00.002+11:00

inspired by his previous contribution to "dirty space news: transiting planets" and the present holiday season, joe created a deliciously geeky festive video...!

snowy square

2011-12-22T15:21:00.000+11:00

times square, 1958, by pete turner

snow?

2011-12-21T15:50:00.002+11:00

i have successfully arrived in ohio for a bit of concentrated christmas a week before the big day. the US knows how to take this holiday season to the next level, even without the benefit of snow just yet!

i saw a dozen decorated trees at the airport, heard christmas songs on the radio and in stores (a blues tune called "santa claus want some lovin" was a highlight), drank a seasonal drink at one of the buhzillion starbucks on every possible corner (the eggnog latte is not as good as is might sound), played with tiny people until i couldnt take their cuteness any longer,

tried endless tins of shared homemade christmas cookies, and witnessed people wearing, without the fainest hint of remorse, gaudy christmas-themed clothing (i admit i used to make my own christmas sweatshirts and wear them with pride. despite years of hindsight-embarrassment, i now completely appreciate holiday themed clothes that go beyond the cliche santa. i enjoy their total over-the-topness!).

but still...

calvin and hobbes

seriously, ohio. rain?

the temperature might cool enough later in the week for a bit of snowfall. hope, hope...

testing new technology

2011-12-16T04:07:00.001+11:00

i've been out at siding spring observatory for a few nights in order to help with the commissioning of a new instrument on the anglo-australian telescope (AAT).

tonight's weather was not looking so good from the start. here are the warrumbungles being rained on.

and lightning over the skymapper telescope:

Photo Credit: Andy Green

despite the weather, we've had no shortage of activities to keep us occupied!

on to the AAT we are adding a new instrument, the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral Field Unit (SAMI), that lives in that black tube at prime focus.

in slightly technical terms, SAMI is a multi-object integral field spectrograph with hexabundle optical fibre feeds! i'll explain that a bit more later, but first, here are a few shots of SAMI in the tube:

as you can imagine, it's a bit challenging to do mechanical things in such a small space (especially at 3 am in the dark when it's necessary!). here they are fixing the hexabundles to the metal plug plate with magnets. the next version of SAMI might employ a small robot to plug the plates.

inside each of those hexabundles are about 60 optical fibers. each hexabundle is placed over a single galaxy so light from the different regions of the galaxy can be investigated independently. currently, there are 13 bundles, so 13 galaxies can be looked at during each pointing of the telescope.

once the light is collected, the optical fibers direct the light through a long path down two stories, to a room where the AAOmega spectrograph lives.

the amount of stuff that can go wrong when testing new technology is amazing. sometimes things go more smoothly than you ever imagined, and other times, the simplest things dont work, and it takes many people a lot of thinking and discussing to get to the bottom of a problem and figure out how to fix it on the fly. notice the duct/gaffer tape!

at one point, we had to point at a very bright jupiter to make sure our telescope pointing and focus were as we thought they were!

the whole process is frustrating, exhilarating, and exhausting all at the same time.

now to show you a bit of data. here is a single galaxy that SAMI collected data on during the first commissioning run several months ago.

the galaxy image on the left comes from a survey using the UK Schmidt Telescope. the red circle shows the area of the galaxy covered by the hexabundle (15 arcsec) and the colored circles on the right show information from the spatially-resolved optical fiber spectra. the colors indicate how the gas in each of those regions of the galaxy moves: blue is towards us and red is away. the gas in the galaxy is spinning around, revealing very nice disk structure in this system!

these early results and instrument design are described in a paper that has been accepted for publication and is now out on the arXiv: here!

function world

2011-12-15T21:51:00.000+11:00

link

feline yoga

2011-12-14T23:35:00.000+11:00

cats are so great. and nice, slow yoga movements!

silver bells: christmas in summer

2011-12-11T13:26:00.003+11:00

i finally played my first christmas album of the season yesterday. it was nice to listen to, but it felt odd, not only because the sun was shining and the air was warm, but because i was making spicy salsa for a new dish: mexican sushi.

the song silver bells affected me more than any other. the lyrics of the song remind me sooooo so much of the holiday season i experience in my hometown in middle america, which is essentially the idealized version you see in all those old movies.

my huge family manages to take christmas to an even higher level of kitschy wholesomeness by singing carols together on christmas day, culminating in a cousin ho-ho-ho-ing into the room dressed as santa just as the von bauers end with a round of jingle bells! every year. (bourbon slushies recommended)

but i have to admit that i love it all, and as much as i rolled my eyes at the whole affair at different stages of my childhood (and adulthood), i truly feel the ultimate intimacy of home as the cold weather sets in to welcome these traditions.

listening to silver bells, which absolutely encompasses this mid-western holiday sentiment, made me realize just how absent this atmosphere is in sydney during the build up to christmas. i mean, yes, it's summertime, and people go to the beach regularly, and the sun shines warmly down on our skin, but i think its more than just the weather...

i'll quote some lyrics from the song to explain:

City sidewalk, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style.
In the air there's
A feeling of Christmas.

nope. in the air there's a feeling of SUMMERTIME! i have to admit, i do like that feeling, especially considering i'm about to spend six cold winter weeks in the US.

and when i notice wreathes and other holiday adornments around sydney (or melbourne where i was last week), they seem completely out of place and awkward. people know christmas is coming, but there is not really a feeling of anticipation. there is no snow falling or:

Children laughing, people passing,
Meeting smile after smile,
And on every street corner you'll hear:

Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,
Soon it will be Christmas day.

i actually havent seen a single santa standing outside a store, clanging his "silver bells" and asking for donations. and when i do see santas dressed up in their red suits and hats, i think to myself "that is one of the worst jobs in the world: sweaty santa in hot summer sydney."

City street lights,
Even stop lights,
Blink a bright red and green,
As the shoppers rush home
With their treasures.

i have seen exactly two houses with holiday lights, although i live close to the city and not in a suburb, so maybe that's the reason. and maybe its because i havent really been into any stores to shop for presents this year, but i dont hear friends talking about shopping or tree-decorating, or see evidence of the stress that seems to surround some people in their bustle to "prepare" for the big days.

Hear the snow crunch,
See the kids bunch,
This is Santa's big scene,
And above all this bustle you'll hear...

seeing snow flutter to the ground; feeling that crunch of snow underfoot; getting all bundled up in sweaters and warm hats: these things act as catalysts for holiday anticipation. i know people here who have never seen snow.

ok, so maybe it does have a lot to do with the weather, and the fact that holiday "traditions" here are just simply much different than what i grew up with. although i definitely felt the winter holiday excitement when i lived in germany from august to december one year and experienced all their christmas markets and gluhwein.

Randall Munroe, the creator of the xkcd comics, produced a very interesting commentary this week stating that "every year, american culture embarks on a massive project to carefully recreate the christmases of baby boomers' childhoods." it's pretty true now that i think about it, but in all honesty, it's also my childhood. the traditions might be relatively young, but i will always embrace them because they are mine, regardless of who instigated them.

the down side is that modern american consumer culture clings onto anything that might be a commercial success, and manages to suck every bit of genuine enjoyment out of it. as much as i love the holiday anticipation, when it starts all over US towns in early november, it becomes overwhelming and annoying very quickly. will that ever change? how can we change it?

luckily, this year i will go home one week before christmas, bake some cookies, experience concentrated christmas goodness until i reach a safe saturation, sing my heart out to some carols with my family, and then happily let the season pass.

i'm so looking forward to going home for a visit!! :)

ps. it better snow when i'm in ohio!

total lunar eclipse - december 2011

2011-12-08T13:15:00.000+11:00

there is a total lunar eclipse this saturday, december 10th, 2011!

as opposed to last year's total lunar eclipse which was only visible to me in australia as the red moon rose above the horizon (i watched from sydney's harbour bridge), this event will be fully visible from australia and asia!

parts of the lunar eclipse will be visible in the early morning from northwest north america and as the moon rises (evening) in some of europe.

happy viewing!

timescapes preview

2011-12-06T16:33:00.000+11:00

i'm ceaselessly impressed by tom lowe's visionary work. here's his newest timelapse, a preview of his feature film:

the sith that stole christmas

2011-12-06T09:22:00.000+11:00

what happens when you combine star wars with one of my holiday favorites, dr seuss' how the grinch stole christmas? a well done little spoof called the sith who stole christmas ;)

modern marriage

2011-12-03T14:17:00.000+11:00

i think its just plain silly that a person cannot marry any person they want to, if they want to. here are two videos that make good cases.

the first is a 19 year old, very well-spoken zach wahls, who was raised with his sister by two moms.

the second is a lovely short film with a powerful message. it was filmed in sydney over the last month (see luna park's clown with its mo?) and shows off the city's beauty...

a cape

2011-12-02T12:40:00.000+11:00

link

spend time instead of money

2011-12-01T15:36:00.002+11:00

very nice things to keep in mind this holiday season:

via julia blogs it like she sees it

some links:

etsy - "Buy directly from small creative businesses from all over the world. With over 11 million handmade and vintage items, there really is something unique for everyone."

kiva - "We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. "

UPDATE: as pointed out in the comments, i advocate not creating debts, but then advertise Kiva ("loans that change lives"). i'll explain the reason for my seeming contradiction... i learned of Kiva a couple years ago when my cousin donated money to it in my name for my birthday. i got to go through the website and choose exactly whose project in the world my $25 went to support. i chose to contribute to the $500 asked for by a cambodian woman who needed some equipment for her family farm. after the $500 was raised, she repaid the debt to Kiva, who put my $25 back in my account and i got to choose someone else to support! i have continued this pattern of choosing a person, getting repaid, and selecting again. it has been interesting to learn what people around the world really need.

thanks G4! ;)

christmas moon

2011-11-29T11:50:00.003+11:00

despite the heat of the southern hemisphere, i'm starting to get in to the holiday mood thanks to this lovely photo by Joni Niemela.

two astronomers walk into a bar...

2011-11-27T18:24:00.001+11:00

i went to a favorite pub in sydney a few weeks ago with some non-astronomer friends, who started making fun of me immediately when i arrived, because i was wearing my star wars t-shirt. i defended myself, in vain.

when it was my round for drinks, i went up to the bar with one of these friends so we could decide what kind of beer we wanted. while in the queue, i thought maybe i recognized the silhouette of someone there. sure enough, despite the hundreds of bars in sydney, there were a few astronomers at the pub who happened to be attending a conference in sydney that week.

i walked up, tapped an astronomer friend on the shoulder, and when he turned around i happily pointed out that he was also wearing a star wars t-shirt :)

i'm not sure if that actually helped my case, but i felt somehow vindicated!

math problem

2011-11-24T21:23:00.000+11:00

i'd like to tell you that when i go out with physicists, this isnt a tough problem, but that would be a lie ;)

perth's pinnacles

2011-11-21T21:06:00.001+11:00

i'm visiting the city of perth in western australia right now. i work on projects with a few different groups of astronomers here, so i decided to make an extended visit to progress those projects, give a talk, and explore a bit of western australia!

over the weekend we had a lovely BBQ at matilda bay, where you could see the city center in the distance.

we then set off the next day on a short road trip to visit the pinnacles desert area three hours north of perth.

it's unclear exactly how these rocks formed, but it happened after a series of events over a long, long period of time. it's also interesting that they occupy a relatively small area out in the desert of western australia.

we had a lot of photographic fun.

i forgot to bring my hat from sydney, so i purchased one at a shop on our way to the desert. the ribbon read "merry christmas!" this might be my holiday card this year :)

it was incredibly windy while we were out there and we were occasionally, painfully sandblasted! the benefit of the wind was the mystical atmosphere the sandstorms created.

some of the pinnacles reminded me of other things.

and if only i was a rock star, i'd have a nice photo to go with the CD, thanks to aaron's photography!

southern skies and southern cross

2011-11-20T11:06:00.001+11:00

a couple months ago, brady visited australia to shoot some footage for the periodic table of videos, a new project called deep sky videos and our old favorite, sixty symbols. in this new sixty symbols video, i get to explain all about my favorite celestial objects visible in the southern hemisphere!

one thing that this video reminds me is that i start talking really, really quickly when i get excited!

there is some extra footage available to watch if you want to know a bit more!

Perth beaches

2011-11-19T14:30:00.002+11:00

not a bad way to spend a morning... especially where there is a BBQ to look forward to in the afternoon! :)

the sky over the anglo-australian telescope

2011-11-18T13:56:00.000+11:00

an astronomy colleague of mine, Dr Ángel López-Sánchez, recently created a nice time-lapse film of images he collected while observing at the Siding Spring in Australia, where the Australian Astronomical Telescope sits.

he recorded some of the scenes while i was out observing with him, and i always worried that maybe the kangaroos would knock over his camera equipment as it sat clicking away throughout the long nights. apparently enough footage survived, because this video is great!

other scenes from siding spring:

tim tam slams
milky way over AAT
rainbow panorama
sunset over warrumbungle park
the invaders have landed
the UK-Schmidt telescope
determining redshifts
telescope domes and kangaroos

stellar quilts

2011-11-17T14:12:00.000+11:00

it's a wee bit out of my price range, but the pillars of creation quilt created by jimmy mcbride on etsy is incredible!

movember

2011-11-15T10:25:00.000+11:00

is anyone else participating in this year's movember charity campaign?

the entrance of luna park on sydney's harbour is through the mouth of this slightly creepy old clown, who usually isnt sporting a mo.

my favorite times are when the clown on stilts comes out to floss the big clown's huge teeth :)

earth from space

2011-11-14T12:24:00.000+11:00

breathtaking. every time i watch...

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

lightning circles

2011-11-13T11:40:00.000+11:00

i like the arrangement of these stormy night photos done by artist cassandra jones.

she has also created other shapes, but i like circles best.

dirty space news: transiting planets

2011-11-10T14:34:00.003+11:00

we havent had a good installment of dirty space news in a while, so i'm pleased to present a killer! the caveat is that this one was created on purpose, but that doesnt make it any less brilliant!

as of right now, there are 697 exoplanets known. of these, 185 have been detected by the transit method.

if a planet happens to pass in front of its star from our point of view, it blocks a tiny amount of light output from the star. sensitive telescopes can detect this dip and then we can attempt to model how big the planet must be! the kepler space telescope, for example, looks for such systems with transiting planets.

some observations of transits at different wavelengths do not exactly agree in their timing, so people have suggested that the planet might push a shock wave in front of it that distorts the geometry of whats blocking the star's light (ie. it's not just a circular planet, but could be a different shape due to the shock.).

in order to test this theory, an industrious student from the UK wrote some code to test out the hypothesis. before the code was used to model real data, this student made an inspired choice as to which geometric forms to use and thankfully, shared the results on youtube.

without further ado... (turn your volume up and click on the image below)

just kids

2011-11-09T10:46:00.002+11:00

during my train rides to and from work over the last week, i've been reading patti smith's memoir just kids.

she's a rock star poet. there are some incredibly memorable sentences throughout the book that have made me sit back and reflect - not about their meaning so much as the harmonious and clever way they are put together. this quote isnt from her book (that i've seen yet), but i saw it on the vast internets today:

i was lucky enough to see her perform during a book tour in england a couple years ago. i bought the book at the show after listening to her read a few passages, but i had to put it down the first time i tried reading it. she does a lot of name-dropping throughout, which is simultaneously fascinating and annoying, and a lot of the book focuses on her relationship with robert mapplethorpe. i couldnt take it at first.

but this time around i'm really enjoying her poetic phrases and i've been listening to more of her music as well. i love her passion and attitude.

here's a video of one of my favorite songs of hers, dancing barefoot. randomly, this is a version performed live with eddie vedder and johnny depp. it's a great version, aside from the person singing along during the choruses...

Sydney observatory

2011-11-07T17:45:00.001+11:00

my plan for the evening ;)

maybe one day I'll think of a new title for a public talk, but I just like this one!

a year in oz

2011-11-06T22:53:00.000+11:00

we had a few people over this weekend to celebrate the fact that my flatmate and i both moved to sydney one year ago. time flies swiftly, and creeps along, simultaneously.

we had fun creating the spread, and a friend brought incredible flowers!

another friend brought yummy desserts and adorable meringue birds.

inspired by recent travels, i attempted to make a matcha and adzuki bean (green tea and sweet red bean) cake roll! it was my first attempt at the roll thing and i'm amazed it rolled up without any major cracks! overall i was pleased with how it turned out. the cake was a bit dry, but the flavours were nice and the colours were great!

i managed enough nerve to sing a few original songs for the very friendly audience. i should play in front of people more often. i can stand up and talk about science in front of an audience of hundreds without feeling as nervous as i felt playing live music in my own living room.

the sun treated us to a nice end to the lovely day.

it has been a good year here in sydney. took a while to get settled, but i feel at home now. it helps that the city is so ridiculously beautiful, i found a good person to live with, and our (mold-less) flat is a pleasant place to be :)

stealing candy from a baby

2011-11-04T15:08:00.001+11:00

the challenge from jimmy kimmel was for parents to tell their kids that they ate all their halloween candy... and record the responses! the experiment sounded cruel and unusual to me so i very reluctantly watched the video, but the resulting footage is surprisingly funny!

at both halloween and easter, i had strategies laid out for how i would consume my candy, mixing the favorites with the okays in a very specific way so that i could trade with my sisters and enjoy the flavours, until all the candy was gone. this process would usually last for a week or so.

i totally would have cried if my parents (or anyone) had taken such sweet satisfaction away from me, but i think i never realized it until i watched these poor kids. there is a lot of anticipation and gratification surrounding the full candy acquisition and consumption experience!

statistics

2011-11-02T17:14:00.000+11:00

this pleasantly frustrating statistics question was recently seen on a chalkboard somewhere:

post your answer in the comments...

deep sky videos

2011-11-01T14:38:00.000+11:00

from the creator of sixty symbols, brady haran, comes a new video project and youtube channel called Deep Sky Videos, which is a collection of videos about objects in the night sky!

you'll see at least one familiar face in this preview ;)

on twitter: @DeepSkyVideos

what light

2011-10-31T21:33:00.002+11:00

clever little video animated with sun light!

via ze frank

volcano shadow

2011-10-29T12:59:00.000+11:00

this is one of the best sunrise mountain photographs i've seen in a long while. the image, captured by Nick Lippert, shows Mt. Rainier as the sun rises in the pacific northwest region of the US. gorgeous...

The Feynman Series - Beauty

2011-10-28T17:22:00.000+11:00

the words of richard feynman narrate this insightful and beautiful video created by the sagan series.

i like listening to him because of the interesting flow of his thoughts: one observation creates a question which leads to another penetrating consideration, and so on.

also, i enjoy the nostalgia i feel from his voice because the way he speaks is similar to older generations of my family.

enjoy!

miyajima: from one island to another

2011-10-26T21:47:00.000+11:00

a true highlight of this epic trip around asia was a 26 hour stop on the japanese island of miyajima. when you take the ferry from hiroshima to the island, you are welcomed by an intriguing view of the itsukushima shrine.

a peak of the itsukushima shrine from the surrounding hills

part of the genius of this shrine is the beauty of how the design complements the tides completely. i arrived near low tide and could walk right out to this huge gate...

low tide at the gate, or torii, of the itsukushima shrine

a few hours later, the bottom of the structure is covered up with the rising water!

this is the major part of the itsukushima shrine and the high tide water rises right up to the platforms you walk along.

by sunset, the orange torii sits deeply in the water.

the torii at high tide

i love how the mountains in the background weave through the structure. this is ancient dynamic design, even though the structures dont actually move at all! gorgeous concept.

after this six week epic trip around asia, i'm now heading home to australia. one island to another.

Kites and Constellations

2011-10-25T00:06:00.000+11:00

want!

full details of the kites and constellations sweater can be found here ;)

ready for "halloween" in tokyo

2011-10-22T07:20:00.000+11:00

in southeast and east asia, there are an amazing number of 7 elevens and KFCs. the 7 elevens in taiwan were the place to be as you could pay your bills, use free wi-fi, get stamps, have a snack, etc...

in tokyo, they have dressed up this colonel sanders in preparation for one of my favorite holidays of the year...

"halloween" ;) (it is always an annoying word to remember how to spell, isnt it?)

occupy wall street

2011-10-21T00:30:00.003+11:00

it took a while to get large-scale media attention, but the "occupy wall street" movement has certainly made a recent impact in the minds of many people. While on a long bus ride in korea last week they had news playing on a tv. i couldnt understand the words, but they showed scenes of people in seoul and several other cities in many other countries showing support for the USA-based movement.

Here are four key points (and 4 accompanying charts here):

1. Unemployment is at the highest level since the Great Depression,

2. At the same time, corporate profits are at an all-time high (The top earners are capturing a higher share of the national income than they have anytime since the 1920s.),

3. Wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-time low (After adjusting for inflation, average earnings haven't increased in 50 years),

4. Income and wealth inequality in the US economy is near an all-time high (CEO pay and corporate profits have skyrocketed in the past 20 years, "production worker" pay has risen 4%).

the thing that jumps out to me in the charts here, is just how rapidly the corporate profits rebounded after the economic crisis hit.

for a poignant cartoon summary written almost 20 years ago by the endlessly relevant artist bill watterson, click this image...

courtesy of gocomics.com

i dont like to write too much about politics here, but i wanted to share the calvin and hobbes cartoon and thought i'd set the scene. in my opinion, it's about damn time people got angry about these issues and organized to say so! now it's time for representative politicians to step up and start suggesting policies to help eradicate these gross inequalities.

tokyo nightscape

2011-10-20T19:48:00.000+11:00

today i gave the final lecture of this rather epic tour of east asia. tonight is my last night in tokyo. i like this scene of tokyo at night and can say i've seen at least three of those massive sea creatures, with limbs moving up and down, attached to buildings above restaurants.

tumblr tells me (for once!) that this image comes from a video game called "power slave."

i'm off for the weekend to visit hiroshima and then kyoto, before heading back to australia, next week.

exploration of the origin of the universe

2011-10-20T13:06:00.000+11:00

the Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe at seoul national university in south korea not only has a fantastic title, but also a good url: http://bigbang.snu.ac.kr/. i love that i get to visit and work at places with titles like this!

there are also nicely coloured temples around the city.

swarming bodies

2011-10-19T13:19:00.000+11:00

a work by Angelo Musco

lady by tokyo

2011-10-16T20:39:00.001+11:00

i arrived in japan today and during my first few hours of exploration, i wandered into an electronics and gaming market.

the amount of stuff one can store on teeny tiny little USB sticks now is remarkable!

then i found an entire floor of an arcade completely dedicated to photo booths! (i found several others later...)

no question, i had to try.

the booth i chose was called "Lady by Tokyo." being as the instructions were all in japanese, i had to guess at what was happening and therefore look a little funny in some of these shots.

things to notice:

- i am clearly taller than the average japanese person using these booths, as i was standing all the way at the back and my head was still cut off!

- you can use a machine to write things on the photos afterwards. i did lots of guessing as to what i was doing, and then the time ran out! no more adjusting.

- they *automatically* enlarge your eyes!?! i guess this is to be closer to the anime/manga image of women, but i find it a bit freaky.

ridiculous. charming. just wow.

i wish i had some friends here - this could be really fun!

tipping pi

2011-10-15T02:13:00.002+11:00

well spotted ;)

illuminated night

2011-10-14T11:17:00.001+11:00

via luminous red supernova

physics : math :: sex : masturbation

2011-10-13T09:37:00.000+11:00

saturday morning breakfast cereal has a funny, not-quite-dirty-space-news comic out now. enjoy ;)

bean sprouts

2011-10-10T22:33:00.004+11:00

in jeonju, south korea, they really like their bean sprouts. two english-speaking, (drunk) old men i met at dinner laughed at this observation of mine, saying its actually "something in the special water" here that makes them delicious.

i have possibly eaten my weight in bean sprouts over the last few days.

exhibit A, breakfast: several types of kimchi, tiny salty shrimps, barley tea, and two varieties of spicy bean sprout soup! (they like to eat big breakfasts here...)

Kongnamul gukbap (콩나물국밥)

the flavours might not have had huge depth, but the spiciness more than made up for it!

actually, that dish on the right was my favorite! it was two eggs with dried seaweed mixed together (and cooked) with the hot broth from the center dish of bean sprout soup. the women who served the food prepared that dish for me, as it must have been pretty obvious that i had no idea what to do with the two raw eggs sitting silently in the bowl in front of me!

balls

2011-10-07T11:28:00.002+11:00

in my opinion, betty white is one of funniest people around and deserves more credit!

for instance, i saw this quote by her the other day ;)

you've got to find what you love

2011-10-06T05:07:00.001+11:00

this is the text of a commencement speech given by steve jobs on june 12, 2005 (video below):

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

nobel prize in physics 2011

2011-10-05T02:54:00.001+11:00

the nobel prize in physics for 2011 has been given to three people: Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae."

of the three, i know brian schmidt who is an astronomer based at the australian national university in canberra. after i gave a seminar talk there a couple months ago, brian gave me a bottle of wine he makes at his winery, a customary gift he bestows upon all visiting speakers.

when brian attended the supernova and their host galaxies conference in sydney in june, he led a wine tasting event one evening. this is where i learned he is really into wine, and he kindly opened a bottle for us all to try! it was indeed a tasty red, and since i've tried it, i think i might hold on to the bottle i have for a while longer ;)

brady was on this announcement quickly and shares not only what the prize was awarded for, but also the story of how mike has lost a bottle of fine whisky as a result of the prize announcement, in this sixty symbols video:

Beijing: Donghuamen Night Market

2011-10-04T01:59:00.000+11:00

during my first night in Beijing, i managed to entertain some locals by eating something completely the wrong way. but i'll get to that...

the Donghuamen Night Market in Beijing, China is known for its unusual food options. this market is a bit overpriced and caters to the tourists, but you can bargain for deals if you want. in general, the strangeness of the options makes up for the overall blandness of the flavours, in my mind.

for instance, in the image below you see silk worm at the lower left, and snakes on sticks in the middle of the upper row!

you choose what you want and they either fry it or grill it over the coals in front of them, as this woman has done to the skewered snake she's happily handing off.

i did not eat snake.

i have no idea what the mound of thing below is. i couldnt guess from the items listed on their signs and they couldnt tell me when i asked. they chop it up and serve it in a stir fry or a soup. the locals seemed to like it.

then, of course, there are the creepy crawly things: scorpions, centipedes, grasshoppers, lizards, massive crickets, etc... all deep fried to order.

i did not eat anything with too many legs to count, nor did i eat or photograph the sheep's penis, the (seriously) stinky tofu, the pig ears (a true delicacy here), the testicles, you get the idea.

what i did eat were squid, oysters, dumplings, and a starfish!

a guy at the stall offered to take my photo, and my expression mostly describes the experience. i wanted to like it, but...

it had a very confusing and gritty texture. i didnt really like it at all. i took one more apprehensive bite as i walked along the stalls and was about to toss the awful thing in a bin, when an old lady mercifully waved me over to her stall and showed me the proper way to eat a starfish (between her fits of laughter with her friend)!!

apparently youre supposed to crack it open and only eat the dark flesh inside!

oops! i was completely embarrassed, but happy to learn the right part to eat! doing my best as a silly westerner to entertain the locals ;) the inside bit was definitely better, but kinda bitter and salty and not actually that tasty. a woman stopped just then and asked if i could give her some money to buy bread. i offered her the rest of the starfish, but she refused, and turned quickly to rush away. hmm.

i ended the evening on a sweet note, with fruit glazed in sugar!

Jiankou Great Wall

2011-10-02T23:55:00.002+11:00

today was an exhausting and incredible day. i cannot believe how much we lucked out with the weather while we climbed up to and along the unrestored Jiankou section of the great wall of china. absolutely amazing.

until recently, i never really understood the desire some people had to walk along large sections of the 3500 mile long wall, but my opinion has changed dramatically. not only have i been reading a great book about a wall trek called embracing the dragon, by polly greeks, but now the experience of feeling the long mountain spine leaves me craving more.

maybe one day...

more photos sometime soon, need sleep.

listening

2011-10-01T23:10:00.000+10:00

tom lowe has produced yet another amazing and dramatic view during his successful endeavour to make a full length film, timescapes.

Listening (Credit: Tom Lowe)

admittedly, he's much better at naming astro-photos than i am ;)

neutrinos faster than light

2011-09-30T17:39:00.000+10:00

the scientists of sixty symbols explain all of this faster-than-the-speed-of-light business....

daddy long legs

2011-09-29T08:34:00.000+10:00

he has a point...

but i remember when my tiny niece was obsessed with chasing these harmless spiders around the yard and her way of saying "addy ong wegs" (or something) was absolutely adorable!

a simple reminder

2011-09-28T07:00:00.001+10:00

it's almost easy to forget where i am after a day of sitting at a desk with my laptop thinking about the same type of universe-related questions that i think about most days.

but then i get up to use the bathroom and find squatting toilets waiting for me. oh right, still in asia!

most toilets stalls dont provide handles...

many places offer both the squatting option and the western-style toilet... just remember not to flush the toilet paper!

so far this trip reminds me of something my good friend said recently about adjusting to having a new baby and a toddler in her family:

"it’s a question of managing all the moving parts and making sure everyone eats, sleeps and poops in the appropriate places."

only i just have to look after myself. props to all you parents!

ps. today i'm off to the western social media deadzone of mainland china, during their national holidays, which should be a sufficiently crazy time to visit beijing! talk to you from hong kong next week...

coastal climbing

2011-09-27T12:14:00.000+10:00

i managed to get out of the city over the weekend and up to taiwan's northern coast. i went with some seasoned rock climbers who, thankfully, let me borrow their equipment! i'm not a very strong climber, but it was a lot of fun and the views from high up the rock face were worth the effort!

i also walked around a bit and found a family fishing. overall, the day was lovely - even when it started really raining late in the afternoon!

a talk, a recital and dumplings

2011-09-24T09:40:00.002+10:00

the populations of taiwan and australia are roughly equal at 23 million people, yet taiwan is an island 500 km (310 mi) long and 200km across, while mainland australia is over 7.5 million square kilometers! taiwan has roughly 200 professional astronomers compared to australia's 500.

after my talk yesterday, there was a reception with an array of snacks set out to welcome a mexican concert pianist who gave an amazing piano recital! the event was to honor mexican and tawainese relations as they move forward to build a telescope in mexico with the aim of detecting small (~1 km diameter) objects in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our solar system.

listening to piano music in a lovely recital hall is now officially my favorite way to relax after giving a talk.

my hosts then took me out to dinner to a very famous dumpling restaurant in taipei city. there were many people standing outside waiting and i thought we would never get into the tiny place, but they took our table of six up and up and up 5 flights of stairs to a room with a large table!

the food was incredible! some of the steamed dumplings actually had soup inside so they morphed their shape as i picked them up with my chopsticks, dipped them in the vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger mixture, and placed them on my spoon to cool. the bite was an explosion of goodness.

i was so entranced by the textures and flavours of the food and the scientific conversation, that i forgot to take any photos! i realized this at the end of the meal and so my hosts insisted on ordering another round of red bean dessert buns so they could take this photo for me ;)

some food in taiwan

2011-09-23T01:29:00.003+10:00

anyone living in australia during the last ~year knows how exorbitantly priced bananas have been since the floods hit queensland and wiped out most of the crops.

anyone who knows me reasonably well understands how devastated i have been about this unfortunate occurrence! but despite my love of bananas, i refuse to pay $15 to $20 AUD per kilo (or even more) for this delicious fruit.

now i hope everyone can appreciate just how big my eyes must have grown today at lunch with astronomers in taiwan, when i was finishing my bowl of noodles and the woman placed on our table one tasty, tiny, bright yellow, gorgeous looking banana for each of us!!

maybe it wasnt the best early impression to make on the professionals here, but i dont really care, because i was incredibly excited. and after hearing the sad story of the floods, i was offered another banana, which i happily accepted!

the other dessert offering was a bowl of hard candies. i took two that looked peculiarly interesting, pictured above. one was corn flavoured, which didnt seem quite as odd as the apparently goldfish flavoured sweetie. the fish one was colored pink and surprisingly tasted quite good! i ate it first in case it was horrid and i needed to cover the flavour. this was a mistake, because the brown colored "cornee" thing was absolutely awful! i cannot do any more justice to the flavour other than to say that i had to spit it out.

in other food news: sushi-flavoured pringles!?!

ps. there were probably supposed to be at least 10 hyphens in the post, but i gave up trying to remember the rules and just removed them all! please forgive me (or teach me...).

light reading

2011-09-22T09:37:00.000+10:00

successfully made it to taipei! it has the old familiar smell of asian cities in the summer: sewage.

the trip was mostly uneventful, but i managed to get in a bit of light reading on the plane ;)

off to work today - give my first talk tomorrow. the extragalactic astronomy community in taiwan is rather small, but quite active, and apparently they will all be at my talk tomorrow! looking forward to it.

circling the sun

2011-09-21T07:42:00.000+10:00

art by toby lewin

asian research trip

2011-09-20T21:00:00.001+10:00

tomorrow i start another extended research tour - this time around asia! i'm giving 9 talks at nine different institutions in 5 countries. in my experience asian countries are exhausting to travel in, mostly because i have no intuition whatsoever for the languages and outside of big cities, there is not much english spoken or written.

so i've been getting myself mentally ready for this trip by doing some research about the different cultures i will be visiting: taiwan, china (beijing), hong kong, south korea, japan.

i went from feeling very excited a few weeks ago, to being a bit anxious over the last week. now my talks are ready, my research is at a relatively settled state, i have ideas to discuss, and i'm *really* excited again! i cant wait... to eat...! :)

but i still have to pack :( i want to travel, but i dont want to pack. i want it to be that moment where i sit on the plane and wonder what movie i will watch.

anyway, i should get on with the packing. hopefully i'll be able to post regularly over the next 5 weeks and fill you in with stories and photos.

more soon!

flying over the earth

2011-09-18T16:23:00.004+10:00

here is a timelapse video taken from the international space station as it travels around the earth. i think the lightning looks amazing as does the edge of the atmosphere floating lightly above the surface.

water sculptures

2011-09-17T07:42:00.000+10:00

this is so neat! the kids are pretty funny too - that's exactly how i felt!

tatooine-like planet found

2011-09-16T11:26:00.000+10:00

NASA's Kepler space telescope has found a distant planet orbiting around TWO stars! remember the binary sunset seen from the planet tatooine?

Sunset on Tatooine from Star Wars. link

that might be what the sunset would look like if you lived on "Kepler-16b" (astronomers still arent very good at naming things...)

there are currently 680 known exo-planets, which is a dramatic increase to the last time i remember checking, which was just a few months ago, and there were about 560 or so! exciting astronomical times to be living in for sure!

i knew this announcement was coming today because all day yesterday, i could hear my office-neighbour, simon o'toole, talking on the phone to several newspaper reporters, radio people, and various other media outlets about it. simon searches for planets too and is the AAOs resident expert on all things exo-planetary. as he described to the sydney morning herald:

"When you have two stars forming close together you have a big cloud of gas and dust and gravity pulls this into a disc of material which orbits both stars. If there is enough gas and dust left over you can get a planet."

since i knew this announcement was coming today, i wore my star wars t-shirt to work in honor of the new system :)

note the great view from my new office (i can hear very odd and interesting bird sounds all day), and my new hair cut!

(i'll update this post with a fun photo later today.....)

intellect vs artistry

2011-09-14T12:31:00.001+10:00

link

its a true test of understanding if you can explain something to other people - regardless of the complexity of the issue!

feeling it?

2011-09-12T15:34:00.002+10:00

well...

so says artist Adam R. Garcia

the shapes of stories

2011-09-10T16:33:00.000+10:00

a concise description of the shapes of stories as told by the writer kurt vonnegut...

above and beyond

2011-09-09T21:37:00.000+10:00

link

The Milky Way Galaxy: A Memoir

2011-09-08T22:05:00.000+10:00

Galaxies like me live for hundreds of billions of years, which seems like a long time, but a lot has happened in the mere 13 billion years of my existence so far. My life has been anything but boring.

Galaxy Birth

The memories of my very first years remain fuzzy and diffuse, but I know I came into existence soon after the Big Bang. The first stars that formed in the Universe were BIG! So big that they lived very brief and powerful lives and quickly exploded, causing a series of events that resulted in my formation!

The energy from the explosions of the first stars initiated the gravitational collapse of huge halos of material. I am the result of one of these gravitationally bound systems. When I was born I contained lots of dark matter and gas, which quickly churned into thousands of millions of stars.

Star Formation and Supernovae Explosions

Hydrogen gas was the fuel inside me that I turned into a range of stars, big and small. The stars were either born as twins, gravitationally bound to each other as they slowly moved around my center every 200 million years or so, or they formed their own planets, or both!

I contain about 400 billion stars today and continue to form new stars at a steady rate of a few each year. I probably harbour more planets than stars, but the planets are very hard for me to sense since they are so tiny and do not produce their own light.

A recently discovered supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy. Image Credit: LCOGT

My biggest stars shine very brightly from nuclear fusion in their cores, turning hydrogen into helium and eventually into oxygen and carbon. During my adolescent years of formative star formation, which lasted several billion years, once every hundred years or so one of the most massive stars in my spiral arms would explode as a supernova, sending surrounding gas flying forcefully out in all directions.

When I was young, the gas near the supernova left me for good and was lost in space, because I wasnt yet big enough to gravitationally keep hold of it after the explosion. Eventually I gained enough mass, by collecting more loose gas and forming new stars, that I was able to hold onto almost anything that passed nearby, including other very small galaxies!

My life progressed in much the same way for a few thousand million years, and I grew massive enough that supernova explosions no longer blew away my loose gas.

Supermassive Black Hole

One year I realized something was growing deep inside my core. It felt like indegestion, but it was actually a supermassive black hole! No one seems to know exactly how the supermassive black hole initially formed at my center, but almost every massive galaxy that has been thoroughly examined has been found to bear one as well. Strange, huh?

I first noticed my supermassive black hole because the material near my center was swirling in closer and closer and heating up. During my supermassive black hole's most active phase, the gas in my core reached temperatures of millions of degrees and started emitting X-ray radiation into space.

This active phase only lasted a few million years before the supermassive black hole exhausted nearly all the energy around my core and quietly faded away, to the point where I sometimes forget it's still there.

One species of tiny lifeforms on a planet named Earth, 26,000 light years from my center, calls the region around my supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A star"). The mass of the black hole at my centre is four million times the mass of that planetary system's sun.

Merging with Neighboring Galaxies

I live in a small neighborhood of galaxies unimaginitely called the Local Group. There are about 50 of us living here, gravitationally bound to each other despite the expanding universe around us. I'm the most massive galaxy in the group, and there is one other big spiral galaxy nearby called Andromeda.

Arp 271 - a hint of what the Milky Way and Andromeda might do one day.

Since my gravity is the strongest in the neighborhood, I recently devoured a few dwarf galaxies living nearby. They remain visible though, as streams of stars orbiting around my central core.

My biggest gravitational attraction is to the Andromeda galaxy, which lives a mere three million light years away. The two of us are slowly spiraling toward each other in a fateful gravitational dance that will guide us to become one massive, egg-shaped galaxy in a few billion years.

The space between our individual stars is so huge that probably no two stars will collide during our eventual merger, but their orbits will change completely and my beautiful spiral arm disk will be destroyed as a result.

Despite losing my shape and gaining so much more mass, I'm looking forward to merging with Andromeda. Its spiral shape will look incredibly beautiful in the sky as we gradually approach each other, and our merger is sure to form a whole new generation of stars.

I've always been referred to as the Milky Way Galaxy by the inhabitants of Earth, but I wonder if I will acquire a new name for the next phase of my life. Something to look forward to!

spiders of unusual size

2011-09-06T06:25:00.000+10:00

my first real life encounter with a huntsman spider after i moved to australia was rather unpleasant, but not quite like this, thankfully! the final line of the video is great!

hunstmans are uncomfortably HUGE. but luckily, they arent really poisonous and in fact, they EAT roaches! i much prefer seeing the occasional massive fuzzy spider than pooping gross roaches crawling around!

orion overhead

2011-09-05T09:16:00.001+10:00

i love the lights of city shining through the low clouds in this shot, and seeing most of orion hanging brightly overhead.

i first saw this image a while ago and might have even posted it here, but i cannot remember. while i saw it this time around here, i dont know who to give credit to for creating the image. (please cite your findings, tumblrs!)

UPDATE: thanks for the comment, chris! the photo was captured by david kaplan and reminds me of his incredible photo on APOD earlier this year showing the moon and venus over switzerland.

macro timelapse: ferrofluid and soap bubbles

2011-09-04T19:12:00.000+10:00

a ferrofluid is essentially a liquid magnet. you can make them at home if you're keen, and i assume that's what kim pimmel did to make this interesting macro timelapse video.

"I combined everyday soap bubbles with exotic ferrofluid liquid to create an eerie tale, using macro lenses and time lapse techniques. Black ferrofluid and dye race through bubble structures, drawn through by the invisible forces of capillary action and magnetism."

Compressed 02 from Kim Pimmel on Vimeo.

maybe NASA will one day use something like a ferrofluid as the blood of a robonaut...!?!

talking about astronomy

2011-09-02T13:33:00.000+10:00

my sister sent me this :)

(click to enlarge)

astronaut's guide to life in space

2011-08-30T07:19:00.000+10:00

cute video from astronauts on several shuttle missions from the ~1980s and national public radio (NPR).

The Astronaut's Guide To Life In Space from NPR on Vimeo.

world's smallest, toughest crossword

2011-08-29T14:30:00.000+10:00

the world's smallest, toughest crossword was created by russell weekes. the answer is sweet.

ukulele: the hawaiian jumping flea

2011-08-26T16:11:00.000+10:00

i dont really need to pick up a new hobby, but whatever - i just bought a ukulele! i love it so far, but my fingers are yelling at me and i'm a bit annoyed at how quickly it falls out of tune. hopefully my skin will toughen up soon and i'll figure out how the little instrument works!

here are some inspirational tunes played on the ukulele.

first, listen to the legenadary hawaiian musician Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole sing somehwere over the rainbow.

and one from pearl jam's front man, eddie vedder, who released an album of ukulele songs earlier this year. here is his tune called can't keep.

aurora over greenland

2011-08-24T00:01:00.000+10:00

today's astronomy picture of the day is a lovely view of the aurora over greenland during a recent shelios expedition to learn about auroras.

shuttle launch reflection

2011-08-23T00:01:00.000+10:00

this beautiful long-exposure photo of a shuttle launch at night was linked to on twitter today. the reflection is really gorgeous.

playing with balls

2011-08-22T07:19:00.000+10:00

sorry about the title of the post, but i really couldnt think of anything else more appropriate to describe these two completely different demonstrations of incredible ball skills:

the tim tam slam

2011-08-21T02:14:00.003+10:00

a tim tam is a very popular and tasty australian biscuit/cookie composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit that surround a chocolatey cream filling, and completely covered in a thin layer of chocolate.

tim tams were first created in the 1960s and named after an american thoroughbred racehorse.

the packaging is unique in that each biscuit ("biccie" in aussie slang) has its own little compartment and there are precisely 11 biscuits per package.

i have developed a tim tam habit while observing at the australian astronomical observatory. very early in the morning, when i start to get sleepy and exhausted from working all night, i like to perform a tim tam slam (or two) to help me stay awake (and because they are so yummy)!!

to perform a tim tam slam, you need a tim tam and a mug of hot beverage such as coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

first, take small bites off opposite corners of the tim tam, or daintily bite off both ends (my preferred method).

the next few steps happen in rapid succession, so get ready...

hold the tim tam tight between your fingers and place one of the nibbled off bits in your mouth. submerge the other side in the beverage and suck, suck, suck!

as soon as you get the *hit* of liquid through the tim tam straw, pop it directly into your mouth!

if you wait too long, the whole thing turns into sludge and can easily drop out of your hand, so its best to eat it quickly.

every time i do the slam, it tastes better than i expect :)

UPDATE: in response to this post, some fine fellas in cardiff decided to demonstrate a similar technique using a twix, which they call tea-twix-tubes!

this is love

2011-08-18T15:26:00.001+10:00

can you guess what these are?

i didnt know so i'll just tell you: serotonin and oxytocin. prints by maggie hurley.