Ah... The times has the low down on Hubble. Serious, but not yet fatal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/science/space/W30hubb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/science/space/W30hubb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Monday, September 29, 2008
Free Fall!
So Congress seems to have adopted the Ron Carey/Mel Brooks Strategy for dealing with the current credit crisis. “I got it! I got it! I ain’t got it!... I’ll get it... I got it! I got it! I ain’t got it.” What is the plural of doofus? Doofi? Whatever it is, it’s apt.
cf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4kcEuRgXwI
Meanwhile, buried in the news today: NASA has postponed the Hubble rescue mission *because the telescope has stopped sending data!* (I saw this on MSNBC, so I assume it’s true, although I haven’t heard anything about this from NASA trough the AAS, which is unusual.) Not clear from the MSNBC report if all communications have been lost or just the data downlink. In any case, it’s not good!
cf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4kcEuRgXwI
Meanwhile, buried in the news today: NASA has postponed the Hubble rescue mission *because the telescope has stopped sending data!* (I saw this on MSNBC, so I assume it’s true, although I haven’t heard anything about this from NASA trough the AAS, which is unusual.) Not clear from the MSNBC report if all communications have been lost or just the data downlink. In any case, it’s not good!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Ouroboros
Bah! My brain is flummoxed by a familiar but long forgotten problem: The tendency of some of the fundamental equations of cosmology to wrap around and eat themselves in a bewildering and irritating manner. It doesn’t help that the notation and conventions in the literature are rather flexible as well. There must be 50 different ways of writing down the Friedmann equation in equivalent but subtly different manners. Blah... My head’s tired. It’s Friday and it doesn’t want to be wrestling with cosmology.
But there it is. It needs to get done. I have a class on Tuesday, and I need to have both a new problem set and a set of lecture notes ready. So I will return to trying to find a clean and clear way to show that the Friedmann equation predicts a universe that evolves away from flatness with time. This is a well known result, that seems to be addressed in a unique way in every textbook and set of lecture notes I have access to. Worse, it seems that they all seem to suffer from a bad case of handwaving or “then a miracle happens” syndrome in the math: making a leap that seems altogether reasonable on first glance, but which doesn’t seem to follow directly upon close examination.
Ah well, that’s why they pay me the big bucks right? To make sense of the self-eating-snake equations map out their curves for all to see? Boldly going where students would otherwise fear to tread? Which, in self-eating style brings us back to flags and snakes. Or Pretzels. Something topologically complex that wraps around itself endlessly. Like a closed universe. See, again I can’t seem to escape. I seem to have become trapped inside a semantic event horizon, with no way out but to hope I can quantum tunnel through the barrier and Hawking radiate myself to another topic.
Or maybe just give up and get back to work.
But there it is. It needs to get done. I have a class on Tuesday, and I need to have both a new problem set and a set of lecture notes ready. So I will return to trying to find a clean and clear way to show that the Friedmann equation predicts a universe that evolves away from flatness with time. This is a well known result, that seems to be addressed in a unique way in every textbook and set of lecture notes I have access to. Worse, it seems that they all seem to suffer from a bad case of handwaving or “then a miracle happens” syndrome in the math: making a leap that seems altogether reasonable on first glance, but which doesn’t seem to follow directly upon close examination.
Ah well, that’s why they pay me the big bucks right? To make sense of the self-eating-snake equations map out their curves for all to see? Boldly going where students would otherwise fear to tread? Which, in self-eating style brings us back to flags and snakes. Or Pretzels. Something topologically complex that wraps around itself endlessly. Like a closed universe. See, again I can’t seem to escape. I seem to have become trapped inside a semantic event horizon, with no way out but to hope I can quantum tunnel through the barrier and Hawking radiate myself to another topic.
Or maybe just give up and get back to work.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Shoe-horned
Strange idiom that... Nobody even uses a shoe horn any more. It’s an idiom which has entirely shed it’s origins. Almost as mysterious as Cockney rhyming.
Anyway, shoe-horned it is, as it is being written under a hard time limit imposed by the fact that I have another class to teach in 19 minutes. However, as I missed my opportunity this morning, and I’m unlikely to do much new in that time period, I thought I’d use it this way.
Still rusty. That’s for certain.
Why do I have REO Speedwagon in my head? Why, why, why? Perhaps it was Sunshine’s doing, but I don’t have any recollection of it recently, and it seems a bit on an unlikely candidate for NPRs background music this morning.
Yikes, does that make me feel like my parents! The clock radio in our room is now set to the local NPR station, and it totally reminds me of mornings as a kid waking up to the strains of “All Things Considered” wafting out of my parents bedroom. Of course, the downside of listening to NPR in the morning is that it starts your day with the panic alarms going off. Who needs caffeine when you have the thought of Sarah Palin in the White House to start your day?
Nothing makes me miss England like American politics. Actually it’s not American politics per se, it’s really American culture which is generally depressing. I guess I am exactly the sort of leftist elite over-educated Eurocentric snob that Republican politicians tell people to hate.
Also, I seem to be nostalgic for trains now...
Anyway, shoe-horned it is, as it is being written under a hard time limit imposed by the fact that I have another class to teach in 19 minutes. However, as I missed my opportunity this morning, and I’m unlikely to do much new in that time period, I thought I’d use it this way.
Still rusty. That’s for certain.
Why do I have REO Speedwagon in my head? Why, why, why? Perhaps it was Sunshine’s doing, but I don’t have any recollection of it recently, and it seems a bit on an unlikely candidate for NPRs background music this morning.
Yikes, does that make me feel like my parents! The clock radio in our room is now set to the local NPR station, and it totally reminds me of mornings as a kid waking up to the strains of “All Things Considered” wafting out of my parents bedroom. Of course, the downside of listening to NPR in the morning is that it starts your day with the panic alarms going off. Who needs caffeine when you have the thought of Sarah Palin in the White House to start your day?
Nothing makes me miss England like American politics. Actually it’s not American politics per se, it’s really American culture which is generally depressing. I guess I am exactly the sort of leftist elite over-educated Eurocentric snob that Republican politicians tell people to hate.
Also, I seem to be nostalgic for trains now...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Now is the time
And now... And now... And now. In fact it is always the time. That’s sorta the point isn’t it? In any case, I’ve been restarting some old routines this morning, and thought that perhaps I should restart this one as well. If I make it a time-limited activity it might even be possible to keep at it. In any case, here I am.
Rusty. Definitely rusty. The words don’t flow smoothly. The stream is awkward and the focus wandering, but practice is as practice does or something to that effect. Boy, not a good sign when I’m misquoting Forrest Gump. Perhaps its just another example of the infrantilization of this country. That’s a hard word to spell...
I was going to perhaps expand on that topic, but I really don’t feel like ranting, and it would degenerate into a rant. So back to the breath and let it go.
Geez, how new age do I sound there. Ick.
It’s ok. Zen doesn’t have to be the realm of soft-headed wishful thinking.
A little groggy this morning. Smoothie grit stuck in my teeth too.
If I’m going to make this a time limited activity, I should probably decide on what that time limit is. I should also probably keep track of when I start writing. These little details, you know. Does make it more difficult to place limits when the limits and the reference frame are undefined. Gotta work with something.
Oh, look at that. There’s a time stamp right at the top of the page. Thank you Mac Journal. Now I just need to define a time limit and hey presto, I’ve defined an invariant interval (a timelike one at that). 15 minutes is a nice round number to start, and doesn’t threaten to break the bank. And 15 minutes from 11:04 AM would be 11:19 AM. And the time is now.
There’s a time and the time is now and it’s right for me,
It’s right for me, and the time is now.
There’s a word and the word is love and it’s right for me,
It’s right for me, and the word is love.
-Yes, “Time and a Word”
Rusty. Definitely rusty. The words don’t flow smoothly. The stream is awkward and the focus wandering, but practice is as practice does or something to that effect. Boy, not a good sign when I’m misquoting Forrest Gump. Perhaps its just another example of the infrantilization of this country. That’s a hard word to spell...
I was going to perhaps expand on that topic, but I really don’t feel like ranting, and it would degenerate into a rant. So back to the breath and let it go.
Geez, how new age do I sound there. Ick.
It’s ok. Zen doesn’t have to be the realm of soft-headed wishful thinking.
A little groggy this morning. Smoothie grit stuck in my teeth too.
If I’m going to make this a time limited activity, I should probably decide on what that time limit is. I should also probably keep track of when I start writing. These little details, you know. Does make it more difficult to place limits when the limits and the reference frame are undefined. Gotta work with something.
Oh, look at that. There’s a time stamp right at the top of the page. Thank you Mac Journal. Now I just need to define a time limit and hey presto, I’ve defined an invariant interval (a timelike one at that). 15 minutes is a nice round number to start, and doesn’t threaten to break the bank. And 15 minutes from 11:04 AM would be 11:19 AM. And the time is now.
There’s a time and the time is now and it’s right for me,
It’s right for me, and the time is now.
There’s a word and the word is love and it’s right for me,
It’s right for me, and the word is love.
-Yes, “Time and a Word”
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Life in 140 character packets
I seem to remember there was a line in Fight Club about prepackaged single-serving lifestyles... or something to that effect. In any case, in case anyone is interested, I’ve started “microblogging” on twitter. Just little haiku-like snapshots of course, since there is a strict 140 character limit to the system. On the other hand, I can fit the time to finish an entry into my day.
Sigh, Someday it would be nice to get myself organized enough to actually keep to a schedule. Until then, however, I find that everything seems to take too long. A sort of gravitational time-dialtion effect. Or perhaps that’s just the way it seems right now, since I’m writing homework for my Cosmology course.
Anyway, if you’re interested, my twitterings can be found at http://twitter.com/flamingcarrot, or followed with various sorts of twitter or RSS friendly software.
Join the endless chatter and become a part of the future Douglas Adams warned us about. I’m going to shut up now so my brain can start working again.
Sigh, Someday it would be nice to get myself organized enough to actually keep to a schedule. Until then, however, I find that everything seems to take too long. A sort of gravitational time-dialtion effect. Or perhaps that’s just the way it seems right now, since I’m writing homework for my Cosmology course.
Anyway, if you’re interested, my twitterings can be found at http://twitter.com/flamingcarrot, or followed with various sorts of twitter or RSS friendly software.
Join the endless chatter and become a part of the future Douglas Adams warned us about. I’m going to shut up now so my brain can start working again.
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