dear caek,
what is your favourite john updike quote about astronomy?
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:00 (fourteen years ago) link
although i once did get so perfectly drunk that i was experiencing the world in derivatives with respect to time. totally amazing
o_O
caek: does the massiveness of space ever seem sinister to u?
― Lamp, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:05 (fourteen years ago) link
is "space" an appropriate answer to "whats yr fav color" i mean is space a color cause pretty sure it is u might want to look into that― ice cr?m, Saturday, December 5, 2009 9:46 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― ice cr?m, Saturday, December 5, 2009 9:46 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
that question has an answer thanks to the nerds at at&t bell labs:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f325/caek/bellhorn.jpg
they may not do mms messaging or tethered mode, but this is cool:
http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/map/current/pub_papers/fiveyear/basic_results/images/med/gh5_f12_PPT_M.png
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:07 (fourteen years ago) link
what is the best galaxy and whypics ok― crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Saturday, December 5, 2009 9:59 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
pics ok
― crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Saturday, December 5, 2009 9:59 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
imma get back to you on that one.
dear caek,what is your favourite john updike quote about astronomy?― caek, Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:00 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalinkcaek: does the massiveness of space ever seem sinister to u?― Lamp, Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― caek, Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:00 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― Lamp, Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
It is not true that developments in physics go ignored by professional humanists or by the common man. The basic facts get to us all and frame the way we think and even feel. The picture physics paints of the material universe is arresting enough to make the newspapers but far from flattering to our individual identities. Astronomy is what we have now instead of theology. The terrors are less, but the comforts are nil.
-- John Updike, 2005 iirc, Physics Today
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:10 (fourteen years ago) link
seriously though (i) yes, terrifying moments of clarity every year or two (ii) listen to this short story, it will only take you 15 minutes and it is pretty much on the money about the end of time: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2008/04/a-bite-of-stars-a-slug-of-time-and-thou-episode-5/
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:12 (fourteen years ago) link
a favourite galaxy:
NGC 1300
http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod_e/image/0501/ngc1300_hst_c30g90.jpg
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:14 (fourteen years ago) link
itt a strange man asks you if you saw the massive bar and dust lanes and flocculene on that galaxy
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Can you explain a bit more about forces? Like, for instance, is gravity subject to relativity rules - if something starts increasing in mass really fast (uh pretend this is possible I guess), do nearby object start feeling the extra tug immediately, or only after exactly (distance/speed of light) seconds? I guess it must be the latter but why does that make any sense?
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:19 (fourteen years ago) link
M104 (aka the Sombrero galaxy)
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~broek/pictures/sombrero_galaxy.jpg
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:20 (fourteen years ago) link
she's a beaut
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:21 (fourteen years ago) link
whoa it's like a plate!
― harbl, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
M104 u r a treat
― crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
how many of the stars i see are actually galaxies
http://i49.tinypic.com/2ez2rs6.jpg
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:26 (fourteen years ago) link
forces are propogated by massless particles. e.g. the electromagnetic force, which is the force that dominates our lives, keeps us warm, prevents us from walking through doors, etc., is propagated by the best known massless particle, the photon.
massless particles travel at exactly the speed of light. therefore forces can only propagate at the speed of light, you are correct.
there is a thought experiment about this involving the sun suddenly disappearing. if this happened then the earth would stay on its orbit for 8 minutes, before suddenly flying off into space, because that's how long light takes to reach us.
the reason all this makes sense is complicated and difficult to explain without getting into special relativity, which is not my strongest subject, and not something i've ever been good at teaching. but perhaps if you're comfortable with the idea that you can't send information at faster than the speed of light, then it would make sense to you that you can't have forces that operate faster than that (or instantaneously) because they could be used to transmit information at faster than the speed of light.
this wikipedia article makes a decent stab at this. of course once you throw in quantum mechanics all hope of understanding this is lost, because that stuff makes no fucking sense whatsoever.
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:28 (fourteen years ago) link
how many of the stars i see are actually galaxies― crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:22 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:22 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
not many. with the naked eye, in a dark place, you can see andromeda (m31):
http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Schools/what/galaxies/m31_ware_big.jpg
and m33:
http://www.astrogb.com/images/galleria/M33.jpg
in the southern hemisphere you can see the small and large magellanic clouds, which are galaxies too.
however, there are a lot of galaxies. this is the hubble ultra deep field, which is not very pretty, but may give you an idea for how many;
http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2004-07-a-large_web.jpg
pretty much everything you see there (except the two twinkling things, which are stars, is a galaxy. there are about 10,000 in that image. that images is 1 ten millionth of the total area of the sky. and the hubble is only seeing a tiny fraction of them.
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:36 (fourteen years ago) link
No : (. Law 4: "if thermal undershorts are worn, they are of the same main colour as the shorts"
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:40 (fourteen years ago) link
what is a cool video about angular momentum?
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
great question. i would have to say:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r__nGqGpTD8
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:44 (fourteen years ago) link
I'd agree with you, xp, but Keith Hackett says: "Yes. Let the substitution go ahead because there's also nothing in the laws to prevent playing in furry trousers – and there's no reason for you to intervene because the trousers are clearly not dangerous to either the player or his opponents. You should monitor the situation though in case problems do occur – at which point you'd have the authority to have him removed, even if the side have used all their substitutes."
So I asked Mrs K to arbitrate and she said: "Yes, for the humour value."
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:45 (fourteen years ago) link
xxxxpost
The abyss gazes also...
― Pooping And Crying (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:45 (fourteen years ago) link
These pictures - they are amazing.
― bear say hi to me (ENBB), Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:48 (fourteen years ago) link
xxp, some people are pragmatists or intentionalists, myself i am a textualist.
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 22:49 (fourteen years ago) link
dear caek, what is a pretty thought about people and stars and shit?
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 23:03 (fourteen years ago) link
For many years I put up a Day of the Dead altar every November 1 in my Mexico City apartment. I did this in collaboration with the woman who used to take care of it and me; Señora Jacinta Cruz Ilescas, a Zapotec woman from a village in highland Oaxaca where traditional dress has long disappeared and only Spanish is now spoken. In a fever of creative ambition, we would find new ways each year to suspend cloth backdrops on a bare wall. We would pin paper cutouts to the cloth; wrap and stack shoeboxes to create small free-standing altars on the larger one; surround portraits of the departed with fruits and the fruit with flowers and small plates of the favorite traditional foods of the deceased. Then we would fit a dozen prayer candles among the dense display of offerings and try to make the whole thing fireproof.Finally, after we had admired the result and pointed out the current altar's virtues with regard to the previous year's, Señora Jacinta would invariably say, "Ah, señora, but if we were in my pueblo, we would be able to uproot a vine chock-full of jicamas, and make an arch for the altar with it. That way it would be right." Years ago, I read that the Maya people of southern Mexico also make a ceremonial arch from jicama vines, and they still remember why. The radish-like jicamas, which hang down from the vines, and have brown skins but are white on the inside, represent the stars of the Milky Way.
Finally, after we had admired the result and pointed out the current altar's virtues with regard to the previous year's, Señora Jacinta would invariably say, "Ah, señora, but if we were in my pueblo, we would be able to uproot a vine chock-full of jicamas, and make an arch for the altar with it. That way it would be right." Years ago, I read that the Maya people of southern Mexico also make a ceremonial arch from jicama vines, and they still remember why. The radish-like jicamas, which hang down from the vines, and have brown skins but are white on the inside, represent the stars of the Milky Way.
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 23:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Another cool food-space connection: galaktoboureko! but that's probably just because it's Greek.
i think it is totally dishonest to suggest that what astronomers do is important in the true sense of the word.
― caek, Saturday, December 5, 2009 9:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark
i think this about a lot of intellectual careers (incl. my own, if i ever manage to have a career), but as long as you're honest about it, it's ok to do something just because it's really interesting and somebody's willing to pay for it.
― Maria, Saturday, 5 December 2009 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, i agree. i've done my phd during a weird time, and i think it's worse than usual at the moment. funding situations occasionally become so desperate (e.g. now) that you see people convincing themselves that what they do is v. important so that they can convince other people. i think this is disastrously counter-productive, both for the long term attitude of the public toward science (i genuinely worry about what's going to happen when the science results start coming out of the LHC and the electorate are going to be like 'are you fucking kidding me?') and for our internal intellectual health (as big bad betrand russell said, "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.")
galak = milk, hence the milky way is a galaxy. i was not aware of those cakes though. they look good!
― caek, Saturday, 5 December 2009 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link
awesome thread!
― paragon of incalescence (rrrobyn), Saturday, 5 December 2009 23:26 (fourteen years ago) link
w/r/t: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r__nGqGpTD8
do you, caek, condone the practice of dress shirts tucked into shorts?
― ~~dark energy~~ (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 6 December 2009 01:38 (fourteen years ago) link
I do not condone the practice of adult men wearing short trousers at all, but that is next level. I condemn it!
― caek, Sunday, 6 December 2009 10:30 (fourteen years ago) link
I do not condone the practice of adult men wearing short trousers at all
says the referee
― SBanned of Brothers (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 6 December 2009 10:45 (fourteen years ago) link
dear caek, what was a cool astronomy picture you saw today?
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 13:23 (fourteen years ago) link
hi caek, great question. the answer is
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f325/caek/clip_image002.jpg
A+
― ★彡☆ ★彡 (ENBB), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 13:43 (fourteen years ago) link
caek,
schrodinger's cat, alive/dead?
― Louis Cll (darraghmac), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 13:56 (fourteen years ago) link
whenever i think about that i am reminded of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpKqMC2YfwI
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 13:59 (fourteen years ago) link
seriously though
1) i have no idea. i have had to teach QM, and it is seriously troubling shit that i try not to think about too much.
2) all these guys otm: http://phys.wordpress.com/2006/06/09/quantum-mechanical-quotes/
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:02 (fourteen years ago) link
i will read that later, and i will post again when it makes me angry and my head hurt.
― Louis Cll (darraghmac), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:02 (fourteen years ago) link
caek:
string theory, yay or nay
-max
― max, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:12 (fourteen years ago) link
nay x 1,000,000. lost generation of theoreticians.
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:12 (fourteen years ago) link
pssst People We Like
― ★彡☆ ★彡 (ENBB), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:15 (fourteen years ago) link
caek: it seems awfully convenient that all this stuff exists (by which I mean: the entire universe). Is there a guiding hand behind it all?
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:23 (fourteen years ago) link
seven fundamental numbers, iirc?
― Louis Cll (darraghmac), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:24 (fourteen years ago) link
caek, did u get a bike in the end and pics or it didn't happen
― SKATAAAAAAAAAAA (cozwn), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link
lol thank you erica, you made me day : )
Ismael: the guiding hand is jesus iirc. but seriously, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nothingness/#1. although i need to stop responding with links. i'm like a tumblr-generation zen asshole. don't know anything about the seven fundamental numbers. having said that, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/137_%28number%29#In_physics.
cozwn, i did not buy a bike yet. i found out i was moving house in munich over christmas (which is going to be difficult enough without a car), and will be away from germany for about 6 weeks starting soon. also this country is coooooold. and the 2009 stocks were limited but the 2010s have not yet shown up in germany. so now did not seem like the perfect time. i am going to wait to see where if anywhere i get a job (should know by late jan), and then i will make a decision. if it turns out that i'm leaving europe in september then it gets tricky. but i need to nazi up soon. getting antsy.
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 15:23 (fourteen years ago) link
♪♫ no worries I understand and forgive u ♪♫
― SKATAAAAAAAAAAA (cozwn), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 15:43 (fourteen years ago) link
i think some reasonably well respected authorities had isolated a number similar-to-but-not-necessarily-exactly 7 fundamental universal constants that result in the stability we currently enjoy
― Louis Cll (darraghmac), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 15:48 (fourteen years ago) link
can something be "against the run of play" when it happens 1 minute into kick off?
― adorable cheese inscription (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 20:51 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
sounds like a question for ♪♫ caek's corner ♪♫
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 20:53 (24 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― adorable cheese inscription (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 20:54 (fourteen years ago) link
*shrug*
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 22:58 (fourteen years ago) link
which commentator made this point?
― caek, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 23:00 (fourteen years ago) link
that's why we need more of them
― mark s, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 17:07 (ten months ago) link
I have a buddy that talks about the 'multiverse' being a probability rather than a possibility
it's great if you're a screenwriter but c'mon man
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 17:12 (ten months ago) link
the observable physical universe, or at least the current understanding of it, just isn't overawing and huge enough for some people - they want more!
― calzino, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 18:20 (ten months ago) link
Here is a thing that I have read and that I am not sure I believe: If you accept that more than one universe exists, you are almost inexorably drawn to the conclusion that an infinite number of them exist. With all the extant possibilities.
The reasoning goes that there is no logical boundary short of infinity. Like, if the total number is 52, one might ask, "why not 51 or 53?" Arbitraryness creeps in.
Hence, the suspicion that the number is either one, or infinite.
Personally I see no reason why the answer can't be 3 or 47 or 576.
The universe has no obligation to make sense to us.
― Landfill Collins (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 24 May 2023 18:31 (ten months ago) link
sure (but no way it's 3 ffs)
also tbh the multiverse is a different thing than dimensions
― mark s, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 18:45 (ten months ago) link
Mark s what is your beef with the tripleverse
― Landfill Collins (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 24 May 2023 18:47 (ten months ago) link
sucky number, get rid
― mark s, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 18:50 (ten months ago) link
I'd like to think we're in one of the posher universes, instead of the dumpy, cold, sandy ones
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 19:12 (ten months ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_one_infinity_rule
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 24 May 2023 19:15 (ten months ago) link
as many universes as gecs
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 19:35 (ten months ago) link
so there's no set limit to the number of universes but rather it's limited to the capacity of the servers these universes are running on
― silverfish, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 19:38 (ten months ago) link
Hey trinities are ok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8lRKCw2_Pk
The past and the present and the future
Big daddy, son, and spook
Peter, Paul, and Mary
RGB
Etc.
Etc
― Landfill Collins (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 24 May 2023 19:43 (ten months ago) link
betelgeuse has now gone from the night sky (i.e. it's in the direction of the sun) for the next six months, so if it's still getting brighter we have no way of knowing.
this did happen tho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_2023ixf
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 25 May 2023 06:56 (ten months ago) link
when come back bring superpie
― mark s, Thursday, 25 May 2023 08:31 (ten months ago) link
Good thread https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2023-December/033318.html
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 04:23 (four months ago) link
good galaxies https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_reveals_structure_in_19_spiral_galaxies
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 31 January 2024 17:55 (two months ago) link
What does this mean? this doesn't make sense
Skyscraper-sized asteroid to pass within 1.7m miles of Earth on Friday
An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7m miles (2.7mkm) of Earth on Friday.
Don’t worry: there’s no chance of it hitting us since it will miss our planet by seven times the distance from the Earth to the moon.
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 1 February 2024 18:05 (two months ago) link
what doesn't make sense about it?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 1 February 2024 18:25 (two months ago) link
presumably the m in 1.7m is for million
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Thursday, 1 February 2024 18:58 (two months ago) link
(I skimmed at first and thought it said "1.7 miles" so maybe Andy did too)
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Thursday, 1 February 2024 18:59 (two months ago) link
it's 1.7 millimiles, i.e. about 8 feet.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 1 February 2024 19:11 (two months ago) link
well that seems a little too close
― gbx, Thursday, 1 February 2024 19:38 (two months ago) link
Yeah, I thought it was less than two miles... I was hoping to go out and watch it pass over the neighborhood
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 1 February 2024 19:54 (two months ago) link
In terms of interplanetary space 1.7 million miles is just a skip and a jump away.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 1 February 2024 19:57 (two months ago) link
the James Webb telescope spotted a drunk riding on it, so it might swerve closer
https://www.blog.lepetitprince.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/buveur.jpg
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 1 February 2024 20:00 (two months ago) link
Dessin-moi un mouton
― Washington Post Malone (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 1 February 2024 20:40 (two months ago) link
gbx!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 2 February 2024 03:40 (two months ago) link
hey whats up
― gbx, Friday, 2 February 2024 15:00 (two months ago) link
good to see you! hope you are well!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 2 February 2024 17:50 (two months ago) link
thanks man! likewise!
any new space facts i should know
― gbx, Friday, 2 February 2024 18:15 (two months ago) link
nah it's pretty much over
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 2 February 2024 18:58 (two months ago) link
whew!
― gbx, Friday, 2 February 2024 20:25 (two months ago) link