Hot SF Chick of the Week: Week 2

Salma Hayek in Wild Wild West

Wild Wild West was a steampunk action movie starring Wil Smith and you-know-who. There was some other guy in it too, but nobody cares about him. The movie was a fairly uninteresting summer action movie that was memorable only for a brief shot of Salma's tail feathers (I couldn't find a picture of that, and believe me I looked).

Google Earth In-flight Refueling

Google Earth is a program developed by Google that allows you to see satellite photographs of nearly the entire Earth. People have used it for all kinds of fun things. A few weeks ago I posted about people who use it to find old meteor impact sites. Well, some guy has found a photo of an Air Force KC-135 tanker refueling a C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft in flight. Sweet. Check out the full story here.

Pluto's Moons Get Names

Pluto's newly discovered moons get names: Nix and Hydra.

Hot SF Chick of the Week: Week 1

In an effort to make this blog more relevant to guys and lesbians, I'm starting a new series in which each week I'll post a photo of a hot science fiction chick. First off, of course, is the lovely and talented Salma Hayek playing the part of vampire Santanico Pandemonium in From Dusk Till Dawn. Some might argue that vampires aren't SF, but I think SF, fantasy, and horror can be lumped together in the same general genre. Besides, it's Salma!

Fermat's Last Homer

In that Simpsons episode where Homer is sucked into a 3-dimensional world, a mathematical equation appears briefly on the screen. The equation, 1782¹² + 1841¹² = 1922¹² is just shown for an instant. If you enter the equation into your calculator, it turns out to be correct. This means that Fermat's Last Theorem, which states that for n > 2 there are no non-zero whole numbers a,b, and c that satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ , has been disproved! The "proof" however relies on the calculator's rounding error, and it turns out the equation is not really true after all. Simpsons writer David X. Cohen put the equation in the episode. Apparently he has a MS in computer science and searched for numbers that came close to disproving the theorem. So, all you budding mathematicians out there, be sure to keep an eye on the Simpsons.

On the Menu

On this weekend's menu: The Spanglish Sandwich.

Deep Impact

Science Daily brings us the news that a giant (~200 mile diameter) impact crater has been found (maybe) buried deep beneath the Antarctic ice. They theorize that this impact could have caused the Permian-Triassic extinction. This extinction is believed to be Earth's largest, with more than 70 percent of all species dying off, and cleared the plate, so to speak, for the rise of the dinosaurs.

The article also mentions the Vredefort crater in South Africa. The 2-billion year old crater is still officially the largest impact crater found on Earth. It can be seen pretty clearly here using Google maps. Amateur geologists have found perviously unknown impact craters using Google Earth. That seems like a pretty fun hobby to me.

Black Hole Death Dance

Astronomers have discovered a pair of black hole spiraling toward one another. The resulting collision, which should happen in a few million years are so, will result in one larger black hole and, theoretically, a massive burst of gravitaional energy in the form of gravitational waves. How can you not love black holes?

MRO in Orbit

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter completed it's main engine burn Friday afternoon and is now orbiting the red planet. I love to follow these kinds of things at www.spaceflightnow.com. They usually give live updates to launches, landings, and other important spacecraft happenings. They also inject a lot of enthusiasm into their reporting. Here is a sample from Friday's MRO mission status log:

2124 GMT (4:24 p.m. EST)

MOI IGNITION! Flying backward with the Red Planet looming near, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has ignited its cluster of engines for the 27-minute orbit insertion burn. This engine firing will slow the spacecraft's speed by 2,200 mph, enabling the planet to capture the probe before sailing past.

2216 GMT (5:16 p.m. EST)

CONTACT! Communications have been restarted with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter!

When reading the updates live, I really get caught up in the exitement.

Supercomputers

It seems like every time somebody jams a new processor or bunch of processors in a desktop computer, they call it a supercomputer. Remember Apple's Power Mac (what was it a G3 or G4 at the time) advertising campaign? Well, these guys have now come as close as anybody, jamming up to 8 dual core Opteron processors and 64G of memory into a machine not much larger than a desktop PC. I assume the Opteron is manufactured in a 90nm process. Companies are already selling devices at 60nm, and 45nm test chips have likely taped-out somewhere. So this thing could have 64 cores in under two years. Now that is desktop power.

Time Travel Short Story

If you enjoy time travel stories as much as I do, here is a link to a good one. The author is Michael Swanwick, who also wrote the time travel novel "Bones of the Earth".

Some Life Lessons

I don't want this to turn into some sort of gay blog, but I found this post to be worth reading. Even if you're the type of person who never follow links, you should read this one.

Jurassic Beaver

According to this article in New Scientist (which is much better than Scientific American), scientists have unearthed the fossil of a large, beaver-like mammal that lived about 164 million years ago. It was thought that mammals were mostly limited to small, shrew like animals until the age of the dinosaurs ended 65 million years ago. Perhaps we have a more complex history than was previously believed. On a slightly related note, the phrase "Jurassic beaver" makes me giggle.

More Salma

Since you've all been so good this week, here's a picture of Salma.

Fun with Orbits

If you like orbits, you'll find this interesting. Astronomers have discovered a solar system in the process of formation. The thing that is different about this one, though, is that the cloud of gas and dust in the inner system is rotating in the opposite direction than the cloud of gas and dust in the outer system. This would lead to some planets orbiting in one direction, and other planets orbiting in the opposite direction.

Quantum Computers

In what sounds like it was ripped right out of a Robert Heinlein novel, scientists have developed a quantum computer that produces an answer without having to be turned on. I can't wait for the movie.

More on Pluto

Nice article here on whether or not Pluto should retain its planetary status. I get the sense that things are not looking good for our favorite Kuiper Belt Object, although we've just discovered it has two new moons.

Salma!

Movie Review

This week's movie review is posted here.

Heavenly Bodies

No, I'm not talking about Salma (although I am thinking about her). There is a great article in Wired about amateur satellite trackers. Using binoculars and orbital mechanics, these guys have tracked and published the orbits of virtually all artificial satellites, including secret military spy satellites. The article details their history and the attempts to track the super-secret NSA stealth satellite known as 'Misty'. It's a must-read and you can see their website at www.heavens-above.com. Check it out.