Memnison Journal

Interesting stuff on a stellar situation I wasn’t aware of - the ‘hypervelocity star’, where the velocity of the star has far exceeded ‘galactic escape velocity’.

As I’ve mentioned before, modelling stellar systems is an interest of mine, and I’m a little rust on celestial mechanics mach and the n-body problem is an essential in the concepts behind those kinds of models and simulations.  In this case, consider a binary star set, one of which was caught by a massive black hole *glorp* and the other was thrown out by a counter-reaction from that black hole’s gravity well at HUGE speeds.   Instant ZAMMO off into the never-never.    One such that has been heavily studied is a blue-giant, zapping along at 723 kilometers a second.    As in .0024 of light speed.  Or taking 57 hours to travel from the Sun to the orbit of Earth.

In SF / alternate history terms, the possibilities multiply…

How often do you change the backgrounds on your computers, and what sort of stuff do you usally have there?

As for me:

WORK:  picture of Meredith roller skating from last May

LAPTOP: Picture of the twins from last year, looking very much like themselves…

HOME UBUNTU:  Comet McNaught over a sunset, with lots of dark, layered clouds.  (I tend to prefer dark, not-busy backgrounds - lots of astronomicals)

HOME WINDOWS: A grassy, hilly, big rolling vista. Much more interesting than the usual Windows one.  (Scenic big rolling vistas are also good.  Quiet, peaceful stuff.  I tend to change things every couple of months, unless something comes along to get me going).

• http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/images/des-plaines.htm
• http://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/8/959
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Plaines_crater
• http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/maps-data-pub/cook-atlas/fault.shtml

The short version is that 280 million years ago, an asteroid decided that it didn’t like Bill Roper’s music and decided to nail what is now Des Plaines, Illinois.  Unfortunately for the asteroid, Roper wouldn’t be born for a number of years, so by the time he showed up, there was a 25 square mile crater, buried under quite a bit of glacial residue, and it looked in the geologic maps as it someone had taken a BIG hammer and smashed it down hard, once.  All sorts of broken-up base rock.

See also Bill Higgins’ 2006 treatment of this.

At various times, I get into research projects; some simmer on for decades in various forms, and some break off and pick up speed because I happen to run into something that really fuels the fire, so to speak.

My library here is largely one that I use for reference. I have a huge amount of material that isn’t in book form, and I’m going through that all the time and hacking away at it to be able to organize and marshal the stuff. At present, the idea is to digitize everything, and use various management utilities to be able to find and figure out what’s what.

Here’s a *short* list of the topics I’m still digging for:

I’m going to try this again…Susan got me a 6″ Dobsonian a while back, but it’s useless without a spotter scope, and the thing did not come hooked up with one.  I have purchased one, but I have never been able to find anyone who would help me get the &*!! thing set up and aligned properly.  Please, folks, I really could use the hands-on help.

Thanks.   If there’s some confusion over where I live, it’s here.

New geological map of Ohio available; below the cut is more for Ohioans and geology buffs from the Dayton Daily News:

The Stephen Dole book that started most of us nearby-star enthusiasts towards the idea of quantifying what it would take to gin up solar systems with habitable planets is now available as a freebie PDF.  Enjoy!

I’m looking for a good place in the area (western Chicago suburbs vastly preferred) to laminate a pair of star maps. 23 by 35 inches. Nice stuff, and I don’t want it damaged. (Susan thinks I want them framed - heck, no, I’m gonna use these suckers.)
Tyge, you should check these out.

Would you like to see something awesomely beautiful?

Comet McNaught in the Southern Hemisphere.

To follow up on my post about my new page on Paleoclimate and Paleogeography, there’s stuff in today’s NY Times on the movement of the continents over time.  Interactive graphic (flash) is here.

Also a shoutout to Hal O’Brien for referencing the post, and his own post with an interesting graphic on the Nazi votes vis-a-vis religious affiliation of that area. Which is interesting in return, considering that Hitler got his start in Bavaria - that graphic suggests that Catholics were less likely to vote for the Nazi Party.

What a feeeling…when I’m dancing on the puuuuding.  (video)

Yes, Virginia, we can get socked real good by an asteroid.  We just got lucky, again.

• The number of Americans hitting soup kitchens and the like rose from 2001 - to 25 million Americans. And around 40% of those people are employed somewhere. Welcome to Family Friendly America, where we all earn a living wage. Could be worse, could be a Chinese or a Mexican miner.
• When in doubt, fake the meat quality. It sells the stuff.
• Christian-Muslim rioting in Nigeria out of hand: “We have to retaliate,” said Justin Ifeanyi, 24. “It is a shame to us if we don’t kill them.”
• Very interesting stuff about Jurassic diversification of mammals.
• Comic artist Joe Kubert’s personal alternate history, where he ran into the Holocaust: Yossel.
• Lez Zeppelin, the gay womens’ cover bad for Zep stuff. Neat site, love to hear the music and they’re on tour!
• From my f-list, has some cool stuff on the Pluto system here.

• And another dose of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America (for 2005):
  • “Began his career as a seemingly skilled and passionate muckraker, but having been exposed countless times as a shameless, megalomaniacal fraud, he absolutely refuses to get out of our living rooms. “
  • “…a woman so frigid she makes Gila monsters look cuddly, rode this wave of infamy to a resurgence in popularity and a second television show.”
  • “I want to thank the President and the CEO of Constellation Energy, Mayo Shattuck. That’s a pretty cool first name, isn’t it? Mayo. Pass the Mayo.”
• Charlie Stross is looking for another doomsday weapon, which is frightening and makes me want to dust off my Visa for the book.
• Does anyone know anything about playing Russian DVDs on a home system over here? Trying to help out someone.
• Congenial is coming. You really should go. Or at least buy the t-shirt of the babe. Take it from the man who founded the con, me.
• Kick-ass Guilin photos. Love to go someday and check out the karst.
• on the Space Probe to Yuggoth. Ia! Ia!

A cosmic dust shower that pelted Earth for one-and-a-half million years, more than eight million years ago, has been traced to the break-up of a large asteroid whose remnants still orbit the Sun, a new study reveals. The research may shed light on the effect of extraterrestrial events on the Earth’s climate and life.