Friday, 30 November 2012
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Blast/og from the past
Stumbled on an article in AsymulAttenhdat's blog about an artist that I liked in 1980- Lena Lovich.
Certainly brought back some memories, and initiated an immediate visit to my CD rack, and to ensure that it's all on my iPod. It also prompted me to check out the CD of Stateless that I bought many years ago, and fount that it was actually called "Stateless...Plus" -- had a few extra songs on it that I listened to (rather, am listening to now). Sure brings me back... I had quite a taste for those odd-ball artists like Lene Lovich, and Kate Bush. (Okay, and some more mainstream ones like Pat Benatar and Blondie's Debbie Harry). Some stand up better to the passing of time better than others.
Thanks AsylumAttendant!
Certainly brought back some memories, and initiated an immediate visit to my CD rack, and to ensure that it's all on my iPod. It also prompted me to check out the CD of Stateless that I bought many years ago, and fount that it was actually called "Stateless...Plus" -- had a few extra songs on it that I listened to (rather, am listening to now). Sure brings me back... I had quite a taste for those odd-ball artists like Lene Lovich, and Kate Bush. (Okay, and some more mainstream ones like Pat Benatar and Blondie's Debbie Harry). Some stand up better to the passing of time better than others.
Thanks AsylumAttendant!
Thursday, 15 November 2012
A galaxy far, far away
The Hubble space telescope has recently discovered what astronomers believe to be the most distant galaxy ever seen (or imaged).
The red smudge is a galaxy some 13.7 billion light years away. That means that the light that we see here left the distant galaxy 13.7 billion years ago. And that means that the galaxy that we see here existed as we see it only 420 million years after the big bang.
And that might be a bit of a problem.
Does it take only half a billion years to make a galaxy? Nobody knows for sure, but certainly the things don't just appear suddenly. At least that wouldn't fit into any present theory of galaxy formation.
How big is it? It may be impossible to tell, but if it's the size of our galaxy, light would take 100,000 years just to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other end. That's a pretty big thing. Could something that big form in 420 million years or less? Hard to say.
Seeing galaxies this far away brings into question a couple of things- one, maybe the current estimate of when the big bang happened (14 billion years ago) may be incorrect, or two, maybe the assumptions that we're making when measuring great distances are incorrect.
Either one is hard to swallow, as all our theories on physics and cosmology rely on them.
And here's a gem: what if we look in the opposite direction in the sky, as see another thing 13.7 billion light years away!?!
I fear that we know a lot less that we think we know...
And that might be a bit of a problem.
Does it take only half a billion years to make a galaxy? Nobody knows for sure, but certainly the things don't just appear suddenly. At least that wouldn't fit into any present theory of galaxy formation.
How big is it? It may be impossible to tell, but if it's the size of our galaxy, light would take 100,000 years just to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other end. That's a pretty big thing. Could something that big form in 420 million years or less? Hard to say.
Seeing galaxies this far away brings into question a couple of things- one, maybe the current estimate of when the big bang happened (14 billion years ago) may be incorrect, or two, maybe the assumptions that we're making when measuring great distances are incorrect.
Either one is hard to swallow, as all our theories on physics and cosmology rely on them.
And here's a gem: what if we look in the opposite direction in the sky, as see another thing 13.7 billion light years away!?!
I fear that we know a lot less that we think we know...
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Great read: Endurance
Read another few books since my last post, but I just have to talk about this one.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
by A. Lansing
The story of Ernest Shackleton's incredible (and disastrous) voyage to the south pole. There have been other books on the subject, but this one is supposed to be the definitive work- and after having read it, I couldn't imagine a more gripping account. It's the story of Shackleton's planned crossing of the antarctic continent- how it all started, and the six distinct phases of the disaster. Disaster because the mission hardly got underway before it started going south.
Shackleton decided that since England had been beaten in the race to the pole (Scott's antarctic disaster), the next best thing would be a crossing of the continent. The mission was well planned by Shackleton- he acquired the right ship, hired the right crew, accumulated the right equipment (unlike Scott), and put in place a plan to succeed. He would land on one side of the continent, start out with about half of the supplies needed, while another team would land on the other side, and leave supplies in place for the final half of the journey across the continent. But even the best planning is no match for the unbeatable team of bad luck, and the unknown. Both were put in play against Shackleton's team to ensure failure, and promise death to all.
The first phase was the start of the voyage, starting in South Georgia Island, and ending just 30 miles from their planned destination on the coast of the Antarctic continent at Vahsel Bay, where their ship, the Endurance, was captured by ice floes on all sides.
The second phase was a several month journey north, as the currents carried the ice floes and the ship through the winter months, ending in the crushing of the ship by vicious pack ice. The third phase was living on the ice floes in tents, living off seal meat for many months, until the pack ice started breaking up.
The fourth phase was the 8-day journey, by 28 men in 3 open boats, from the middle of the Weddell Sea to the desolate mass of glaciers known as Elephant Island.
The fifth phase was the incredible 7-day journey from Elephant Is. to South Georgia Island, by 6 men in an open boat, during which even the slightest error in navigation and seamanship would have doomed them all.
The sixth phase of the journey was a 3-day hike by 3 men with almost no equipment, over mountains and glaciers, from the south shore of South Georgia Island to the north shore, and finally, civilization.
Fyi- Shackleton managed to save every man on the expedition- those left behind on the south shore of South Georgia, and those left behind on Elephant Island. For the enterprise, I have one word: incredible. For the book: captivating. An excellent narrative by Lansing- I literally could not put this book down. Now, I absolutely must see the HBO mini-series...
by A. Lansing
The story of Ernest Shackleton's incredible (and disastrous) voyage to the south pole. There have been other books on the subject, but this one is supposed to be the definitive work- and after having read it, I couldn't imagine a more gripping account. It's the story of Shackleton's planned crossing of the antarctic continent- how it all started, and the six distinct phases of the disaster. Disaster because the mission hardly got underway before it started going south.
Shackleton decided that since England had been beaten in the race to the pole (Scott's antarctic disaster), the next best thing would be a crossing of the continent. The mission was well planned by Shackleton- he acquired the right ship, hired the right crew, accumulated the right equipment (unlike Scott), and put in place a plan to succeed. He would land on one side of the continent, start out with about half of the supplies needed, while another team would land on the other side, and leave supplies in place for the final half of the journey across the continent. But even the best planning is no match for the unbeatable team of bad luck, and the unknown. Both were put in play against Shackleton's team to ensure failure, and promise death to all.
The first phase was the start of the voyage, starting in South Georgia Island, and ending just 30 miles from their planned destination on the coast of the Antarctic continent at Vahsel Bay, where their ship, the Endurance, was captured by ice floes on all sides.
The second phase was a several month journey north, as the currents carried the ice floes and the ship through the winter months, ending in the crushing of the ship by vicious pack ice. The third phase was living on the ice floes in tents, living off seal meat for many months, until the pack ice started breaking up.
The fourth phase was the 8-day journey, by 28 men in 3 open boats, from the middle of the Weddell Sea to the desolate mass of glaciers known as Elephant Island.
The fifth phase was the incredible 7-day journey from Elephant Is. to South Georgia Island, by 6 men in an open boat, during which even the slightest error in navigation and seamanship would have doomed them all.
The sixth phase of the journey was a 3-day hike by 3 men with almost no equipment, over mountains and glaciers, from the south shore of South Georgia Island to the north shore, and finally, civilization.
Fyi- Shackleton managed to save every man on the expedition- those left behind on the south shore of South Georgia, and those left behind on Elephant Island. For the enterprise, I have one word: incredible. For the book: captivating. An excellent narrative by Lansing- I literally could not put this book down. Now, I absolutely must see the HBO mini-series...
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