Science
Three Years of SDO Data – Narrated
Tweet If you enjoyed the recent video from Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) - “Three years in three minutes” – but would have liked more of an explanation of what was going on with our own local star… here it is again! This time, though, extended, and narrated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center heliophysicist Alex [...] more »
“A major difference between the hurricanes is that the one on Saturn is much bigger…”
Tweet As I mentioned previously, Saturn doesn’t get the love some of our other gas giants do. [All hail our friend and lord, Jupiter! Keeping Ogdy at bay… - Ed] Indeed… [new link] But, with the help of Cassini, Saturn does provide some wondrous images. In some of its first sunlit images of Saturn’s north pole, Cassini has looked [...] more »
Solar Dynamics Observatory: Three years in three minutes
Tweet What it says on the tin. Three years after First Light, Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has released three stunning minutes of images compiled during its virtually unbroken coverage of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum. Enjoy! [Video from NasaExplorer on YouTube. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO] As they note in the associated text [...] more »
Comet 2013 A1: Rendezvous with Mars…
Tweet Here’s something to think about whilst waiting to see if Comet ISON will fizzle, or sizzle. The latest Science at Nasa video looks at the trajectory, and consequences for Mars missions, of Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring). Discovered as recently as 3 January this year, this Oort cloud object will pass “extraordinarily close” to the planet Mars [...] more »
The ALMA Inauguration
Tweet As the BBC reported on Wednesday, having opened its eyes in 2011, and with 57 of its 66 antennas now ready to receive data on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Atacama desert, Chile, the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) was officially inaugurated on March 13. Here’s the associated ESOcast 55: The ALMA Inauguration. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Editing: [...] more »
“It was a meteor strike–the most powerful since the Tunguska event of 1908″
Tweet ScienceAtNasa has a sobering video on the latest information about the visitation by the god Ogdy unexpected meteor strike in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia on 15 February. Video credit: ScienceAtNasa. From the accompanying ScienceAtNasa press release The Russian meteor’s infrasound signal was was the strongest ever detected by the CTBTO network. The furthest station to record the sub-audible sound [...] more »
Irish Agriculture Minister: “I am seriously concerned about this development…”
Tweet I haven’t been posting on every twist and turn [Not "an isolated instance", then? - Ed] of the still unravelling story of the Europe-wide horse meat for beef scandal. But this looks like it could be a significant development. From the RTÉ report A processing plant in Co Tipperary has been shut down after inspectors found it [...] more »
“Two European countries, Ireland and Norway, have already banned all eel fisheries.”
Tweet But not in Northern Ireland. [Partitionist! - Ed] Indeed. Here the regulation of eel fisheries is the responsibility of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure – and the current Minister, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín. As is salmon fishing… There was a brief flurry of press statements last week as the NI DCAL Minister suddenly [...] more »
“President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.”
Tweet As I mentioned previously, asteroid 2012 DA14 is due to make its close encounter with Earth later this evening. Meanwhile, earlier today several hundred people in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia were injured during a visitation by the god Ogdy by debris caused by the unexpected appearance of a relatively large meteor. It’s reported that a crater 6m (20ft) [...] more »
Pope Benedict XVI: “with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome”
Tweet For anyone seriously concerned with his “legacy”, the surprise announcement by Pope Benedict XVI, of his intention to renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome “as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours”, deserves a more considered approach. For example, following on from his initial response, at the Telegraph Blogs Damian Thompson reproduces the [...] more »
Irish Agriculture Minister: “Somebody is selling rogue product and somebody knows about it and is responsible.”
Tweet Still early days in the investigation into the discovery of more beef horse meat at a number of meat processing plants – and note Mick’s update here. However, the cause of the trace amounts of pork DNA and equine DNA in some ’beef’ products is still likely to be different. But there are a few quotes [...] more »
“Ireland has the potential to generate far more wind energy than we could consume domestically…”
Tweet Apparently, Ireland is to become Britain’s off-shore wind farm… That seems to be the gist of the complaint from opponents to wind farms in the Irish Midlands, as reported in the Irish Times. Andrew Duncan, spokesman for the Lakelands Wind Information Group in Co Westmeath, said: “It seems to be an Irish solution to a [...] more »
Friday thread: Curriculum should be based more on asking questions than answers
Tweet Lawrence Krauss “When we teach students we are not trying to make clones of ourselves..” more »
“Will Comet ISON fizzle … or sizzle?”
Tweet Science at Nasa has a great assessment of the potential for Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) to become the ‘Comet of the Century’. Worth watching. Just remember – “comets are like cats: they have tails, and do whatever they want to do.” But as the Science at Nasa assessment notes “Comet ISON is probably at least twice [...] more »
“The causes of these two problems are therefore likely to be different…”
Tweet The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is conducting further tests at two Irish meat processing factories following the recent identification of pig and horse DNA in a range of beef-based products. The UK’s Food Standards Agency is also investigating further. And there’s been a statement from the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill. Commenting on [...] more »
“In Ireland, it is not in our culture to eat horsemeat and therefore, we do not expect to find it in a burger…”
Tweet So, what did you have for dinner… The BBC reports the headline findings of the snapshot survey by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland of some beef-based products on sale in Ireland. From the BBC report Horse DNA has been found in some beef burgers being sold in UK and Irish supermarkets, the Republic [...] more »
“comets are like cats: they have tails, and do whatever they want to do”
Tweet In the BBC’s science news preview of 2013, reporter Jason Palmer highlights a couple of astronomical events worth keeping an eye out for. In mid-February we will get another reminder we live in a (potentially) violent cosmos – asteroid 2012 DA14 will make a harmless but attention-grabbing pass near the Earth, at a distance just a [...] more »
Further Up Yonder
Tweet Stunning views of the Earth accompany this seasonal message from the crew of the International Space Station. more »
“In Saturn’s Shadow” – redux
Tweet Saturn doesn’t get the love some of our other gas giants do. [All hail our friend and lord, Jupiter! Keeping Ogdy at bay… - Ed] Indeed. But, with the help of Cassini, Saturn does provide some wondrous images. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute]. From the image’s associated text NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has delivered a glorious view of [...] more »
Titan’s Nile River Valley
Tweet Fascinating image from Nasa’s Cassini probe at Saturn, where we’ve previously watched the weather on Titan. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI.] North is to the right in this view. From the JPLnews press release “Titan is the only place we’ve found besides Earth that has a liquid in continuous movement on its surface,” said Steve Wall, [...] more »
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Books
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…if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
Tweet The words of Brian O’Nolan, variously Brian Ó Nualláin, Myles na gCopaleen, Myles na Gopaleen and, of course, Flann O’Brien. That O’Nolan was referencing his own dissolute student days at UCD only mildly distracts from the prophetic undertone of his words: I paid no attention whatsoever to books or study and regarded lectures as [...] read our review »
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A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review
Tweet The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of [...] read our review »
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Douglas Murray – Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Inquiry, Book Review
Tweet The aftermath of the Saville Inquiry into the events around Bloody Sunday has left me, and I suspect many others, with one enduring image: Prime Minister David Cameron’s apology in the House of Commons, where he says that the actions of the British Army were ‘unjustified and unjustifiable.’ But there’s a lot more to [...] read our review »
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