on the beach at night

i attended a funeral today for a woman i did not know well, but who made a strong impression on me.  i work with her husband.   the times i saw them together i was struck by how much they adored each other.  in many photos i've seen of the two of them, she touched his face in a noticeable, natural way.  she will be missed.

in her honor i share this poem by walt whitman, on the beach at night.

On the beach, at night,
Stands a child with her father,
Watching the east, the autumn sky.

Up through the darkness,
While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,
Lower, sullen and fast, athwart and down the sky,
Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,
Ascends, large and calm, the lord-star Jupiter;
And nigh at hand, only a very little above,
Swim the delicate sisters, the Pleiades.

From the beach the chil, holding the hand of her father,
Those burial-clouds that lower, victorious, soon to devour all,
Watching, silently weeps.

Weep not, child,
Weep not, my darling,
With these kisses let me remove your tears;
The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,
They shall not long possess the sky–shall devour the stars only in apparition,
Jupiter shall emerge–be patient–watch again another night the Pleiades shall emerge,
They are immortal–all those stars, both silvery and golden, shall shine out again,
The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again, they endure;
The vast immortal suns, and the long-enduring pensive moons, shall again shine.

Then, dearest child, mournest thou only for Jupiter?
Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars?

Something there is,
(With my lips soothing thee, adding, I whisper,
I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,)
Something there is more immortal even than the stars,
(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)
Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter,
Longer than sun, or any revolving satellite,
Or the radiant sisters, the Pleiades.

the world will not end in 2012

i'm still astounded by how many people ask me about the (completely made up) doomsday claimed to take place on 21st december this year.   what especially disturbs me is the level of fear i've witnessed in some young school children who have adults in their lives spreading their own unfounded fear of this nonsense. 

this whole thing is a hoax.

please, believe me - there is NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE for any of the potential "killers" that have been proposed - nibiru ("planet X"), end of the mayan calendar, special planetary alignment, unusual magnetic pole shift, etc...

here's a nice video from david morrison summarizing the reasons why you have NO NEED TO WORRY. 

JWST, hubble's successor, cut from US budget?!

Breaking news about hubble's successor telescope: the james webb space telescope (JWST).

today the US House Appropriations Committee released the fiscal year 2012 science appropriations bill, which will be voted on in subcommittee tomorrow. the main result affecting NASA and astronomy's future??

"The bill also terminates funding for the James Webb Space Telescope, which is billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management."

the over budget and poor management statements are true, but the solution is reorganization, not a total budget cut.  if you are so inclined to influence the issue, contact the people involved in tomorrow's vote!  also, i dont know what this means regarding the canadian space agency and ESA who are also partners in the project. anyone know what the payoff would be?


here are other statements from the press release:

"National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – NASA is funded at $16.8 billion in the bill, which is $1.6 billion below last year’s level and $1.9 billion below the President’s request. This funding includes:

• $3.65 billion for Space Exploration which is $152 million below last year. This includes funding above the request for NASA to meet Congressionally mandated program deadlines for the newly authorized crew vehicle and launch system.

• $4.1 billion for Space Operations which is $1.4 billion below last year’s level. The legislation will continue the closeout of the Space Shuttle program for a savings of $1 billion.

• $4.5 billion for NASA Science programs, which is $431 million below last year’s level. The bill also terminates funding for the James Webb Space Telescope, which is billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management."

5 awesome things about JWST:



more resources:

american astronomical society (AAS) press release

why we need the JWST by julianne at cosmic variance

from risa at cosmic variance

phil plait from bad astronomy

US house committee press release

Nature News blog

Science Insider

ian o'neill at discovery news

the e-Astronomer

sarah kendrew

universe today

nuclear reactors in japan

i wanted to share some information about the issues surrounding the nuclear reactors in japan since the massive earthquake and tsunami hit last week.

you can read an informative article by maggie koerth-baker: nuclear energy 101.

or watch below as the professor from the periodic table of videos sits down to have a chat about what's going on inside the nuclear reactors in japan:



here's another video that really shows in the strength of flowing water. its amazing how quickly the volume increases. (thanks to commenter kevin for the public link!)

whats the opposite of a white christmas?

i have severely failed the first battle with my new oven. i have no idea what happened... the cookies were in for no longer than 5 minutes! apparently the temperature was a lot higher than where i thought i placed the marker on the dial.

::hangs head in shame::


so... what's the opposite of a white christmas??

a tan christmas!

...i'm heading to the beach :)

guatemala sinkhole

it has certainly been a rough week for the central american country of guatemala. the big picture gives a rough idea of the aftermath of the volcanic ash from pacaya volcano eruption, landslides caused by tropical storm agatha, and this amazing photo of a sinkhole that swallowed an entire building in guatemala city!!


the sink hole is estimated to be 30 meters wide and over 60 meters deep. and looks like something straight out of science fiction. incredible.

these things have formed before, could easily occur again, and maybe shouldnt be called sinkholes.

food that doesn't rot

i applaud nonna joann for her experimental efforts! she bought a happy meal from mcdonalds and let it sit on her shelf for an entire year to see what would happen to the food inside the box, and to contemplate the reality of our fast food society.

she writes, "It smelled delicious for a few days. I’d get a whiff of those yummy French fries every time I walked into my office. After a week or so, you could hardly smell it. My husband worried that when the food began to decompose, there would be a terrible odor in our home. He also worried the food would attract ants and mice. He questioned my sanity."

the photo below is the happy meal ONE YEAR AFTER it was purchased. the results of her experiment have disturbed me.


the contents DID NOT DECOMPOSE or mold or change appearance in any appreciable way. seriously, this is scary!

except for honey, ALL things classified as "food" should decompose. the truth of our species is that everything we eat was once living, from plants to animals. i know its easy to remove ourselves from this fact when so much food at stores is offered in processed forms and comes to us in boxes and cans, but that doesnt change where our natural food sources come from or how our bodies use it.

nonna goes on: "Food is broken down into it’s essential nutrients in our bodies and turned into fuel. Our children grow strong bodies, when they eat real food. Flies ignore a Happy Meal and microbes don’t decompose it, then your child’s body can’t properly metabolize it either. Now you know why it’s called “junk food.”

I think ants, mice and flies are smarter than people, because they weren’t fooled. They never touched the Happy Meal. Children shouldn’t either."

amen.

are you vajazzled?

i will always be a vajazzle virgin.

to witness this weird spectacle, here's a NSFW-ish video.

i'm still feeling traumatized by the discovery of this uncomfortable-looking phenomenon that must be ridiculously expensive.

earthquake in chile, telescopes seem undamaged

during the wee hours of the morning, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit chile southwest of santiago. there are several major observatories in chile which house some of the largest telescopes on earth. the gemini-south telescope lives at the southern-most observatory, which is about a 7 hour drive north of santiago. a friend has reported that he could feel a rumble at the telescope, but no damage occurred as a result of the earthquake and observations will carry on as normal tonight! i havent heard news from the other observatories, but they all live several hours farther north of the earthquake epicenter.

the earthquake generated a tsunami that is currently propogating across the pacific ocean. it is set to hit hawaii at 11 am local time. i have several friends using telescopes on mauna kea right now, and some in airplanes traveling there, so i'm sending positive thoughts their way! i'll keep you posted on any news as i hear it.

the big picture has an early set of photos from chile.

UPDATE: aside from some power outages and lack of communication soon after the earthquake, no major telescope facilities have suffered damage. the ESO facility in santiago reports no damage. the university in concepcion is another story... news from colleagues is that people they know working in concepcion have relocated to stay with friends in other cities (mainly santiago) until the infrastructure is fixed a bit. read more at SarahAskew.

galaxies of garbage

yes, humans have purposely created islands in unexpected places - dubai, for example. but we've also accidentally made other islands, whose total size may add up to be TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS!

thats right: trash islands! off the pacific west coast of the US, 1000 miles northeast of hawaii, live several massive, synthetic, growing islands of our rubbish. our synthetic products and the whirling ocean currents have conspired together to create floating piles of plastic leftovers from our lives. we have multiple huge and expanding mountains of refuse living in the vortices of earth's oceans.


yuck!

what can we do? reuse items that dont break up: plastics! reuse plastic bags, or get cloth bags that you can use infinitely! increase the use of biodegradable materials wherever possible. buy a cup or more permanent water bottle to drink from , instead of opening several plastic water bottles a day.

of course, as a single individual my efforts wont decrease the rate at which the galaxies of garbage are growing, but i think as a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy. we just plain dont need all this *stuff* in our lives!