our lady of the rings

wired interviews carolyn porco!


click image to source

snip

wired.com: so if you had a lineup of enceladus, titan and europa, which are always brought up as good targets for astrobiology, which would you choose?

porco: oh, enceladus wins hands down. titan has no liquid water on its surface and any liquid water beneath its surface is inaccessible to us, as far as we know. it has hydrocarbon lakes, but we don’t know of any organisms that could live in those, not at the temperatures that we find on titan. any reference to possible life in lakes on the surface of titan is pure speculation.

we do know of subsurface earth ecologies that could thrive in the subsurface environment on enceladus. now that we know there’s salty water there, that shows there’s liquid water in contact with rock. biotic chemistry could occur that we know exists in volcanic environments miles underneath earth’s surface, where liquid water percolates through hot rocks.

as far as europa goes, europa very likely has an ocean under its surface. in that regard, europa and enceladus are on equal par. but on europa, the ocean is at least several kilometers under the surface and the moon is bathed in an intense radiation field. we can’t go there and just drill several kilometers down because the intense radiation field would fry a properly equipped spacecraft in several months.

so while there could indeed be life within the ocean of europa, it is presently inaccessible. the beauty of enceladus is all you have to do is land on the surface, look up and stick your tongue out. it could be snowing microbes at the south pole. we would be foolish not to head back there immediately.

/snip

yes! yes! i'm betting on enceladus!

the entire chat here.
more on carolyn porco and cassini and ciclops

should math be taught in schools?

a parody of this original.

half theist, half atheist

'neurologist vs ramachandran explains the case of split-brain patients with one hemisphere without a belief in a god, and the other with a belief in a god.'



at 2006 beyond belief conference -- the full talk here.

eclipse over the acropolis

on apod, by elias politis:


image used with permission -- thank you, elias!

these images are included in a corresponding time lapse, acropoclipse:



many thanks to lawrence klaes for the tip.

lytro

a while back, mr.G and i were discussing what kind of cameras they should invent and i said that i wanted one that could capture all the information from a scene so i could decide on my settings later, on my computer.

well... check out lytro light field camera.
this is a shallow-depth-of-field-lover's dream!  click anywhere to refocus:







via digital photo buzz

an isolated, primitive tribe's first encounter with the outside world

i've always wondered what an encounter like this might be like... and now i've experienced it, vicariously.



amazing, amazing video.
via think or thwim

Space Flute Duet Bliss

You may have seen this video of the musical duet between space and earth, featuring Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, however, if not, it makes a pleasant moment.

everything is a remix

a wonderful series...

part 1:



part 2:



part 3:



impatiently awaiting part 4, in the fall of 2011.

a field guide to bullshit

an interview with stephen law in new scientist:


believing bullshit: how not to get sucked into an intellectual black hole

snip

you identify some strategies people use to defend black hole beliefs. tell me about one of them - "playing the mystery card"?

this involves appealing to mystery to get out of intellectual hot water when someone is, say, propounding paranormal beliefs. they might say something like: "ah, but this is beyond the ability of science and reason to decide. you, mr clever dick scientist, are guilty of scientism, of assuming science can answer every question." this is often followed by that quote from shakespeare's hamlet: "there are more things in heaven and earth, horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". when you hear that, alarm bells should go off.

/snip

also...

snip

in your book you also talk about the "going nuclear" tactic. what is this?

when someone is cornered in an argument, they may decide to get sceptical about reason. they might say: "ah, but reason is just another faith position." i call this "going nuclear" because it lays waste to every position. it brings every belief - that milk can make you fly or that george bush was elvis presley in disguise - down to the same level so they all appear equally "reasonable" or "unreasonable". of course, you can be sure that the moment this person has left the room, they will continue to use reason to support their case if they can, and will even trust their life to reason: trusting that the brakes on their car will work or that a particular drug is going to cure them.

/snip

read the full interview...
via RDFRS

nick sagan's father's day gift for carl

click image to source

'for this father's day, i'd like to announce the launch of a project i'm sure he would have loved.  it shouldn't surprise you to know dad was wild about planetariums.  he took me to several growing up and i remember well the shared joy of sitting together in the audience, watching those wondrous shows.  now i've written one.  for the past several months, i've been collaborating with the adler planetarium on the flagship show for their new, groundbreaking (heck, call it skybreaking) deep space adventure program.  it's called the searcher and it's been a fantastic experience to work on, both a pleasure and an honor, and my heart practically breaks at how proud he'd be.' - nick sagan

read all about it on nick sagan's blog.

ch6 - hallucinations

today marks five years of blogging for me.

this is my notebook and my outlet. it's the place where i collect things to think about. i post stuff i want to see, read and discuss, stuff i want to laugh, wonder and rant over.

if others want to have a peek, they're welcome.  feedback has been overwhelmingly positive -- i can count the negative on one hand... that is, if i can even remember it.

still, this isn't an important blog, or a widely read one.  it's just my personal speck on the internet.  last year i thought i was about to quit...  but it's become a habit, it seems.  i just might go for yet another year.

here's another installment of my tradition to quote a bit of each chapter from carl sagan's the demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark... this is from chapter 6:

'we would surely be missing something important about our own nature if we refused to face up to the fact that hallucinations are part of being human. however, none of this makes hallucinations part of an external rather than an internal reality.'
- carl sagan

♫♫♪♫happy blogversary to me.♫♪♫♪♪♫♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♪♪♫

we must know

we must not believe those, who today, with philosophical bearing and deliberative tone, prophesy the fall of culture and accept the ignorabimus. for us there is no ignorabimus, and in my opinion none whatever in natural science. in opposition to the foolish ignorabimus our slogan shall be: wir müssen wissen — wir werden wissen! ('we must know — we will know!')
- david hilbert

lightning eclipse from the planet of the goats

chris kotsiopoulos did it again! another a breathtaking image!


click to source

i discovered it on apod, thanks to my friend, larry klaes!

michael shermer at the center for inquiry - NYC

on the believing brain:



via debunking christianity

the lunar eclipse over athens

two time-lapse videos of the eclipse over athens:

uncovering satellites



total lunar eclipse 2011



thanks, julia baracco!

carolyn porco interview at AZPM

how wonderful -- an interview with carolyn porco on arizona public media! her enthusiasm is oh, so contagious!



more on carolyn porco
more on cassini and ciclops

outer banks

i've been to cape hatteras, NC, as a kid, with a camper. there were no lights for miles around, and, along with gavdos, it's probably the darkest skies i've ever seen.

by daniel lowe



via bad astronomy

one year of the moon

in 2.5 minutes



via open culture

the science rap

with ali G, by melodysheep



999999 multiplied by 9999999999... you don't knnow what i'm going to say 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

respect.

pz myers: atheism ≠ fascism

i liked the phrase, radical, militant tolerance...

snip

...

i disagree with harris and hitchens, especially hitchens on this one issue, but i also defend them, and not just in the sense of defending the principle of free speech, but because i also agree with them in part. somehow, the meaning of "progressive" has weakened so much that it can be equated to radical, militant tolerance of every blithering looniness someone might spout, with tactics that constitute little more than limp-wristed surrender to the excuses of bigots.

too often, the conversation between so-called 'progressives' and their opponents is one of gelatin-spined appeasers trying desperately to stave off the tyrants of the right by frantically retreating from the conflict.

"i want to chop off my daughter's clitoris," says the islamist. "oooh, that's not nice," says the 'progressive', "and your deep, rich cultural traditions make me hesitate to object."

meanwhile, the new atheist says "no. there is no ambiguity here: your children are individuals, you have no right to butcher them. and being an ignorant barbarian is no excuse."

/snip

etc...