The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Science & Space

  • Leonid Meteors Tonight!

    You should go outside and watch the Leonid meteor shower tonight (Friday Nov. 16, 2012). It will produce many more shooting stars than the normal 6-10 per hour, and if we’re lucky, it’ll be a one-per-second show. It all depends on the density of the stream that the Earth is passing through (see the link).

    What I find coolest about these periodic meteor showers is that you can see exactly which direction the Earth is flying by following the various meteor trails back to their point of origin. The spot in the sky from which they all seem to originate is the direction that the Earth is passing through the cometary leftovers. That’s cool.

    According to the wikipedia post, the Leonids hit the Earth at 72 km/sec, which if you know a bit of orbital mechanics means that the shower stream is orbiting the Sun in retrograde, as that’s the only way a sun-orbiting body can impact the Earth at that speed.

    Like I said, very cool.

    I don’t have a good viewing location around me, but I’ll go out on my porch with my sleeping bag and just hang out watching the sky.

  • Poe's Law

    If you’ve never heard of it, there’s a “law” out there called Poe’s Law which states:

    Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is uttrerly [sic] impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article. (link)

    Which brings us to today’s link. Props to Annie who alerted us to this article over twitter.

    Michelle Obama is a man!

    People are just crazy. It’s unfortunate that so many of them reside in the fundamentalist sector.

  • Remembering Challenger

    Today is the 22nd anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s last launch. I was in sixth grade english class when I heard about it. You?

    My family watched the first 13 shuttle launchings from our house in Satellite Beach, Florida. We had moved to New Hampshire 7 months before the disaster. I know several people who watched the Shuttle disintegrate overhead and felt the rattle from the explosion.

    Let’s hope that the spirit of the crew lives on in the work of the people like SpaceX who are pushing to make it easier to get to orbit.

  • Plutopia!

    One month from today is the 2nd anniversary of Pluto’s demotion from Planet status to lowly Dwarf Planet/Kuiper Belt Object. I’m thinking of doing a blog carnival, or having guest bloggers on board that day for a random series of tributes to our favorite solar body named after a Disney Character.

    Any takers?

  • Homosexual Earns Olympic Berth

    No, I’m not being anti-gay. At least, I’m not. They are most definitely being anti-“Gay” and to understand the reference, I’m going to be mean and make you click through the link to Off Resonance’s coverage of the Gay/Homosexual Olympic Saga.

  • Tunguska Centennial

    BOOM!

    Today is the 100 year anniversary of the Tunguska meteor impact. If you don’t know why this is important, I suggest you read “Rain of Iron and Ice” by John Lewis. I own a copy so if you’re ever in town, you can borrow it. It’s one of my books that doesn’t get loaned.*

    If the Tunguska impactor had hit 8 hours later, it would have obliterated St. Petersburgh, Russia. That’s a reason to care.

    *I don’t “loan” books anymore. It’s like money: if you’re so hung up about getting things back, you will sour the relationship with the friend/family member/random schmoe that you loaned the book to. Just give it away and maybe they’ll give it back. If they’re not someone that you would want to give books (or money) to, then why are you?

  • NASA Images

    Blogging is very inbred.

    I found this awesome post about photography from space through Bad Astronomy, who got it from Whil Wheaton. Go us. Now I get to blog about it.

    A series of photos from orbit were posted by Alan Taylor at Boston.com. They’re all awesome, but I like this one best.

    A space cruiser destroying ground targets?
    Source: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. “The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.”
    (06/11/2008 11:44:44) 1.5 Mb file here.

    This is just so science-fictiony, how can you not like it. To my eye, it looks like a battle craft is reining destruction upon a world below (it’s actually the aurora australis and lightning above Argentina). Great shot, despite the technical flaws like the blur and the pixel artifacts. Or do those make it better? Hmmm…

    This is all courtesy of the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, a site I’d never seen before but will probably now spend a lot of time on.

  • Why Parrots are Annoying

    I do not self-identify as liberal. Nor do I self-identify as conservative. And I agree, Liberals are annoying (so are conservatives). But not half as annoying as this young woman. Let me know how far you get through the video.

  • Homeopathic Asscrackers, Batman!

    I’ve been directed to a new website, which I find quite amusing: Crap-Based Medicine.

    One of the postings is of particular amusment because it points you toward an online homepathic self diagnostic tool. Some of the symptoms that you are able to pick in order to diagnose your ailment, and its homeopathic remedy, border on the ridiculous.

    Here’s a sample of some possible Cough symptoms that can be selected:

    • as from vapour of carbon
    • after suppressed gonorrhoea
    • spreading to or from other parts, with the sound of croup

    That’s a tiny sample.

    Really, I encourage you to go put in your symptoms and find what ails you and how to fix it. Phosphourus, by the way, will fix my allergies.

  • MESSENGER Rocks the Solar System

    The MESSENGER probe recently flew by Mercury. For all the details, go to the Bad Astronomy Blog, but I particularly like this image. It really makes me feel like I’m in a science fiction spacecraft, exploring new worlds.