♪♫ caek's corner ♪♫

http://i.imgur.com/cF9fmG2.jpg

Unrelated, but I had always thought there was something just a little ~ off ~ about Los Angeles' bland skyline and just recently learned that all the skyscrapers were mandated to be flat on top to make room for the helipads. That's why there are no Chrysler or TransAmerican Buildings in L.A. Never knew that.

Never noticed that huge comet in the background either. Maybe I saw it on that Bob Seger cover, I'll have to go look.

The LA skyscraper thing started in the mid 70s and was just repealed this year, I think.

i have a friend who works for the ESA and via his Facebook posts they seem like pretty chill peeps irl

good thread

I know they have actual orbits, but I always think of comets as random junk that's just flying through space

theyre actually sentient mushrooms so try to be more considerate next time

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/12/02/world/BIGBANG/BIGBANG-master675.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/world/new-images-refine-view-of-infant-universe.html

my kid could do that

fake

T&O

wtf is this serial thing? is it middle brow?

it is CSI: This American Life

so its brow is set at the level of TAL

wake tf up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIRjxQIYOj4

http://i.imgur.com/Vp789.jpg

think i sat next to that guy on a flight once?

if he's so wrong, why don't you guys do a line-by-line rebuttal of what he said? and if you don't address every single thing he said, then that becomes the new dominant theory

#science

scott stapp?

"Read a book, Seth!"

thanks to the person who ilx messaged me today!

'twas I. Did not know about your corner over here. Mentioned you on this other thread over here

ha! i am in new york but no longer at columbia (or in academia for that matter).

when are you in baseball?

waiting for the cyclones

caek what sorts of math do you use in graduate-level astrophysics classes?a

a lot of normal algebra and calculus, linear algebra, vector calculus, maybe some field theory if you're doing cosmology. tbh nothing too fancy. the number of unsolved problems in astrophysics that seem vulnerable to exact or even approximate mathematical analysis is ... not large afaict.

far more important for research than "maths" in that sense are statistics (and maybe a bit of what would now be called machine learning), and numerical methods and linear algebra in a computer programming context.

complex analysis too iirc

You mean you don't utilize Poincaré Dodecahedral Space? My illusions are shattered.

there is a spectrum from theoretical physics to cosmology to astrophysics to astronomy (although the difference between these last two may be illusory). at one end it's pretty much all maths, and at the other it's pretty much all statistics and/or instrumentation

interesting! thank you.

i would ask more detailed questions, since i am interested in auditing some classes, but it sounds like i need to figure out where on that spectrum my interests fall before asking more questions

ah. if you're auditing graduate level classes (rather than doing research) then the stats/machine learning stuff is going to be much less important.

https://scontent-lga1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/l/t1.0-9/p720x720/11826025_10153447754851772_5865874462321484670_n.jpg?oh=347fa1544c8298fca55e37072d1668ce&oe=56563D12

not a shop...

https://www.facebook.com/NASA/photos/a.67899501771.69169.54971236771/10153447754851772/?type=1&fref=nf

wow

where is monolith?

What's up with that raccoon's mask?

http://i.imgur.com/HmHJODr.png

idk, you say it's not a shop but i need more evidence before i believe in the moon. cool photo tho.

decent looking Horizon on space junk starts shortly ...

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/dscovrepicmoontransitfull.gif?itok=m-pCEXqi

http://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/eso1532a.jpg

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1532/

I recognize that these images are generally hyper-colorized for legitimate scientific reasons, to accentuate structures that would not be nearly as visible without it, but they always leave me with a certain sense of artificiality, like fashion model photos with all the skin blemishes photoshopped away.

I just noticed that you can see the reflection of the moon in the ocean.

that's the reflection of the sun

sunned in a celestial beef, dang

:(

aw! icarus, o icarus.

Icky for short

caek you have probably seen this but for those that have this thread bookmarked check out this gif of flyby of pluto from a video nasa posted:

https://33.media.tumblr.com/9478051d20de16848348a5dc65caccda/tumblr_nu170k9x4R1rdy7odo1_500.gif