quicksand jesus

just a couple highway exits north of where i grew up in ohio, you'll find this recently-built 60 foot statue right next to the interstate:




the names i've heard for this... tribute (?)... include:

touch down jesus
king of kings
big J.
drowning jesus
"high five"-ing the lord, jesus
worlds largest christ (W.L. christ)
quicksand jesus (as my little sister calls him)
and finally, big butter jesus...

as described in this hilarious song by comedian heywood banks:


don't forget to "spread" the word!

scenes of ohio

yellow springs...






(more knit grafitti here and here.)













cincinnati...








(quicksand jesus)

cleveland...





(rock and roll hall of fame)

partial solar eclipse: august 1, 2008

while millions of people will get to see the total solar eclipse this friday, billions of people will get to experience a partial solar eclipse at the same time! larry koehn at shadows and substance has a fantastic series of animations to show the level of partiality seen from various places around the globe: go check them out: here!!!!

total solar eclipse: august 1, 2008

this friday, august 1st, 2008, us earthlings will be treated to one of my favorite solar system shows: a total solar eclipse! lucky viewers in parts of canada, northern greenland, the arctic, central russia, mongolia and china will see this memorable event firsthand. the rest of us can sit comfortably in our jealousy as we watch the solar eclipse in real time, on NASA tv!! the peak is at 7:09 EDT, but tune in earlier to see the buildup to the event!


above is an image from the eclipse of oct. 24, 1995, taken in dundlod, india by NASA's fred espenak (aka mr. eclipse). below is an image of the shadow of the moon on earth as seen by the international space station 230 miles above earth's surface, during a solar eclipse in 2006!


many people have commented to me over the years about the suspicious fact that we experience eclipses on the surface of the earth, implying there is some other significance to the alignment of our moon, the earth, and sun.

eclipses occur because the sun and the moon have the same angular size in our sky, even thought their physical sizes and distances from us differ greatly. the angular size of an object is how big it appears to be when we view it, which is dependent on the physical size of he object and its distance to us. a tall tree 10 meters away appears way taller than it does when we are standing 100 meters away from it.... but the tree is physically the same height! the phenomenon encompassed by the expression "angular size" is why cool tricks like "crush your head" work!


when the moon passes right in front of the sun from earth's point of view, the moon blocks the sun because the two have the same angular size! we call this a solar eclipse. for me, the purely coincidental accident for the object orbiting around us to have the same angular size in the sky as the object that we are orbiting around... is so soo fascinating and beautiful and simple, that its existence alone satisfies my cosmic curiosity without having to attach some other mysterious significance to the event. i appreciate it for what it is and try not to attach a more complicated and frivolous meaning that, in my opinion, distracts from its original beauty.

sometimes the simplicity of acknowledging how things physically came to exist is more fascinating and satisfying than attempting to create and apply a synthetic significance to them.

enjoy the solar eclipse!!

binbrook milky way image

here's a nice scenic night in binbrook, from Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn's astrophotography collection at weather and sky photography.


she took a series of images then digitally added them together to create the detailed milky way image across the sky and the delicate reflection of both stars and the galaxy in the lake. the bright object toward the left is the planet jupiter. you can also see the orange glow of a town on the horizon.

NASA and google

this morning google reminded me that today is NASA's birthday!


the last 50 years of space science at NASA have truly changed our fundamental ways of thinking about our universe. no organization can always be perfect, but i think NASA has provided exceptional insight into our universe, not to mention introducing an incredibly iconic logo into our daily lives. happy future explorations NASA!

astropixie on the radio!

last week, i was interviewed for a radio show on WAIF 88.3 in cincinnati. the interview went really well (i thought) and i had tons of fun! a blog reader was kind enough to record the show and send me a copy and here's my attempt to post it for all to hear!



i havent had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet, but i dont remember saying anything terribly incorrect! i think at one point i talked about the sun becoming a black hole if it were all smashed down into a small volume of less than 3 km in radius (the schwarzschild radius for the sun). i may have quoted the units wrong there, but i meant 3 km! ;)

if the interview is not embedded above, then click HERE for the mp3 file. if anyone has better audio embedding options, let me know! thanks steveJ and davin!

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