This Week’s Science Blog: And God Liked It, So He Put a Ring on It
I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to post this picture with some related content for quite some time.
Anyway. Apparently there are tsunamis in Saturn’s rings.
Thirty years ago, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe detected rippling within a portion of the rings, as well as a gap that seemed to be a little larger than 9 miles wide. Today, observations taken from different angles show the gap to be much narrower than this, but have also revealed periods of “peaking,” as if there were obstructions in the gap.
Astronomer Phil Nicholson ascertains that these peaks are most likely slow moving giant ass tsunamis* rippling through the rings, reaching heights of nearly a mile. It turns out that the tsunami action matches the orbital rate of Titan (which circles Saturn once every 16 days), and thus scientists have assumed that the peaks are the result of the ring’s gravitational relationship with Titan.
As the article states, “As Titan orbits Saturn, its gravity likely yanks the section of ring particles that are in resonance with the moon—or moving at the same speed as Titan’s gravitational field.” However, aside from adding some really cool information about the interaction between Saturn’s rings and moons, scientists don’t think that these findings will have any major implications for the studying of Saturn’s rings.
*technical term
Math Puns: The First Sine of Madness
I’ve been in a math mood as of late. Here are some things that are fun.
– Create an arbitrary matrix. See if you can find the eigenvalues.
– Do stuff like this. Or just mathify food in general (Tukey sandwiches! Chocolate chi-squares! Mandelbratwurst! The ever punnalicious pumpkin pi! I could go on…). I think if we all had to Fourier transform our breakfasts in the morning our lives would be a lot cooler.
– I do interval workouts on the elliptical machine in the rec center. During the high intensity intervals, I start at zero in my head, count up to the next prime number, and count backwards to zero. Then I start again, counting up to the prime number after the first prime number, count backwards to zero, and repeat ad nauseum (like this: 0,1,0; 0,1,2,1,0; 0,1,2,3,2,1,0; 0,1,2,3,5,3,2,1,0; etc.).
– Do stuff like Zeno. Whenever you have to do something for a set period of time (like 30 minutes), divide the time in half in your head then, when you reach the halfway time, divide it in half again, and again, and again, until you’ve got like a minute left. I find this helps the time pass more quickly when I’m doing something not so enjoyable. Plus it’s fun.
– This video:
Yay!
Today’s song: Rich Girl$ by Down With Webster
Dear Maslow: I want no part of your pyramid scheme!
It’s a survey! Give me a break, today was a very long, cold, bus-involved day.
1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Nopers.
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Uh…this morning.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
It’s microscopic. I dig it.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Haha, I haven’t had meat in forever. Tuna, though, I suppose.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Kids are gross.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I’d push me in front of a bus.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Pfft, no.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Indeed.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
I’d sky dive, but never bungee jump.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Reese’s Puffs! Or Mini Wheats. OR Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cereal owns.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Yup.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Oreo!
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
I really don’t know.
15. RED OR PINK?
Hot pink.
16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
Must I answer this?
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My old roomies!
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
CONFORM!
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Pink pants, no shoes.
20. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Why isn’t this question in ALL CAPS?
Time manipulation.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Gramophonedzie’s Brazilian.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Radical Carrot!
23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Why does every survey ask this?
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Uh…a receptionist.
25. HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
No one sent it, I’m my own man!
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Figure skating.
27. HAIR COLOR?
Black.
28. EYE COLOR?
Hazel.
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Nopers.
30. FAVORITE FOODS?
Potatoes, M&Ms, spaghetti squash, pasta.
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Don’t care.
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Supersize Me.
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Orange.
34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer.
35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Pantslessness.
37. DESCRIBE YOUR PENCIL CUP.
I HAVE NO SUCH THING.
38. FAVORITE ARTIST(s)?
I dig Escher.
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago.
40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
I drew a mouse in the shape of my mouse on it. Yeah. I’m that cool.
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
I don’t have TV.
42. FAVORITE SOUND(S).
Sleepyhead on repeat, anything with good bass, the sound Kraft macaroni and cheese makes when you stir it (don’t ask), and the sound of it not raining.
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Beatles!
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Stockholm.
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Being a weirdo.
46 WHERE WERE U BORN?
Moscow.
47. FAVORITE PIECE OF JEWELRY?
Probably the necklace Aaron gave me. I don’t really have jewelry.
48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
I don’t have one of those “spouse/significant other” things.
49. MAYO OR MUSTARD
Mayo.
50. IF YOU COULD HAVE DINNER WITH ANY FAMOUS PERSON OR HISTORICAL FIGURE (dead or alive) WHO WOULD IT BE?
Leibniz!
Today’s song: Le Vrai le Faux by Jérôme Minière
This Week’s Science BloAAAAH GOD MY REALITY
Today we enter the world of auxetics, materials that, when stretched, expand perpendicular to the applied force.
Wait, what? This:
It sounds counterintuitive at first (at least it did for me), but this type of hexagonal material seems familiar for whatever reason. These materials have a negative Poisson’s ratio—thus their expansion when stretched. Most materials have a positive Poisson’s ratio, since they thin as they stretch. According to one article I’ve read, Poisson’s ratio is defined as minus the transverse strain divided by the axial strain in the direction of stretching force…Poisson’s ratios, denoted by a Greek nu, n, for various materials are approximately 0.5 for rubbers and for soft biological tissues, 0.45 for lead, 0.33 for aluminum, 0.27 for common steels, 0.1 to 0.4 for cellular solids such as typical polymer foams, and nearly zero for cork.” This article was written back in 1987, back before auxetic materials had been thoroughly examined. Now there are models that have just been put out to help explain the behavior of this weird stuff that occurs naturally in some rock, bone, and, apparently, paper.
More info here, here, and here. Cool, huh?
Today’s song: Mashina by NikitA
NaNoWriMo: T-minus 30 days
WOO!
The only good thing about October is that there are only 31 (30 now) days left until NaNo starts. Seriously. Every October for like the past three years has blown heavy metal chunks for me. Screw you, October.
I don’t have a definite plot in place. Actually, I do. I have like five definite plots in place. I just have to choose which one to implement. I’m leaning strongly towards the road trip/religious undertones one, but I might genre ditch and go for a more sci-fi story, just to annoy myself and try to work within a genre of which I’m not a big fan.
Who knows? I didn’t know where I was going with things last year, but I finally got an idea on paper that I’d had in my head for awhile.
Anyway.
Today was probably the last sunny day of the year up here, so I took the opportunity to test out the accuracy of the pedometer feature on the new Nano by comparing it to a regular old pedometer.
Not too big of a discrepancy, considering I spent like an hour of those three hours wandering around in Safeway. I think the Nano is more sensitive to “wandering” steps (as opposed to the more deliberate “get out of my way, I’m faster than you” steps) than the pedometer, hence the difference. I’d also trust the Nano’s calorie counter thingy more, since you can actually set your weight, something you can’t do on the pedometer.
And yes, it took me three hours to go ~11,000 steps. Like I said, Safeway, plus the whole “maybe I’ll stop and wait for the bus, ‘cause I have no damn idea where I am” ordeal when I couldn’t find the store I was looking for.
OH YEAH, and this:
I found this movie via Netflix and was going to watch it in its entirety tonight, but this song from the opening sequence totally ruined that, ‘cause I had to go find it, download it, and listen to it on repeat for about three hours. Apparently the movie is like Inception, but better.
Today’s song: Mediational Field by Susumu Hirasawa
Are invertebrates not allowed to drink Orange Crush?
So I impulse-bought an iPod Touch off of eBay this afternoon for no other reason than “hey look, this auction has 31 seconds left and I have money in my bank account!”
Who does that?
I now have THREE MOTHERFUCKING IPODS. I don’t even have the correct number of ears to justify that. What sane human being needs three iPods?
And I don’t even consider myself an Apple whore. I’ve never personally owned a Mac, the whole iPhone thing seems over-hyped to me, and I still don’t know what the hell the iPad actually is (aside from “a magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price”).
I’d sell Ye Olde iPod Classic, but it’s 80 gigs (SIZE OF OLD VAIO WTF) and it’s the only one compatible with my little car stereo plug-in thingy (meaning it charges as it plays). Plus it’s dented all to hell and I don’t know how I could convince a buyer that it works fine when it looks like a fat dude threw an elbow into its stainless steel.
Shiny new golden Nano is obviously staying, ‘cause I bought him less than a month ago and I adore the color. Nano also works best on the bus ‘cause he’s small and easy to deal with when I’m also carrying book/purse/umbrella/groceries.
And selling new Touch would be dumb.
Best plan of action: wait till Touch gets here, fondle the ever-living hell out of it and its Wi-Fi, then determine what Xbox games I should sell to compensate for my lack of restraint. I need to get rid of that old copy of Fallout 3, anyway.
Well, at least I don’t impulse-buy houses (that would make me my mom).
Today’s song: Mozart’s Mass in C Minor: Kyrie, performed by The Hungarian Radio Chorus
Eigenblogger 