There’s a guy wielding a spear RIGHT BEHIND YOU!
Nah, it’s just a cool toy over at ThinkGeek, celebrating human evolution in a somewhat nonlinear fashion, with Charles Darwin at the helm. And just in time for the 2009 Darwin festivities!
Entries from October 2008
Religulous
October 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Which, I may add, is pronounced with a soft “g.” I had been saying it wrongly.
Okay, so the fabulous and wonderful VAA trekked out to the Vinegar Hill Theatre in CVille to see Religulous on it’s opening night. This is the “guerrilla-style” documentary by Bill Maher and Larry Charles which aims to reveal the ridiculousness and danger of religion. Overall, I liked it. To be honest, sometimes I was a little uncomfortable while watching it. After all, I usually complain when a film uses biases to prove a point. I should just relax and realize that this and other movies like it is an opinion piece, not a statement of scientific, unbiased, rational, skeptical fact. I’ll have to ease up on the genre in general.
The film took a humorous romp through the fields of belief in the major three monotheistic religions. Humorous, at least, for those of us who find those beliefs generally laughable. Sometimes, you just let it go and smile at the credulity of the happy believers. Sometimes, you shake your head in disgust at the depth of ridiculousness, such as when Ken Ham was on screen. Other times, you feel a mixture of disgust and sympathy, such as when Arkansas senator Mark Pryor gets caught up in his own contradictions. My personal favorite was the senior Vatican priest (outside after the film crew had been kicked out) who bemusedly admitted that it was all just bunk, but hey, we live with it.
It’s debatable how much Bill Maher knows about the three religions that he attempts to expose. It is especially difficult for those of us in the West to culturally understand Islam, and yet the “religion of peace” take the worst hit in the film. No surprise, too, since Maher’s final message is that dogmatic belief in a divine power can lead to disastrous consequences, especially for a human race that has mastered species-destroying weaponry. The final scenes are meant to evoke the emotion of fear, and boy, do they do a good job. It’s like a bait-and-switch… most of the movie is hilarious, although you feel guilty laughing at the points where strange beliefs are tied to violence, and it ends with a very sobering message: Grow up or die.
Surely, most movie-goers are going to be those non-believers who already don’t mind poking at other people’s beliefs. So is this just “preaching to the choir”? Not so. Not all atheists are out-spoken, and I think this movie will have an effect on those to be more open about their atheism and help remove religious belief from it’s untouchable pedestal by society. (Such was confirmed by at least one in our crowd who still “coming out of the closet.”) It may even have an effect on believers, who will take responsibility for their religious beliefs and realize that radicals, fundamentalists, and overall no-gooders who supposedly subscribe to the same religion should be intellectually disowned by the moderates.
See it for yourself, and also check out more reviews and discussions here and here and here and here.
Oooo! And before I forget again, Larry at VCU has posted the Hitchen-Turek debate for all to see. Yay!
Science videos galore!
October 7, 2008 · Leave a Comment
ISS Baby and Moon Mission are two more fun science music videos that popped up on my radar recently. With these, the LHC rap, and Hotel Mauna Kea, I’m thinking that my favorite radio telescopes need some musical-lovin’. Lacking any musical creativity to speak of, I may have to collaborate with my co-conspirators from the REU days for ideas…
Astronomy, Past and Future
October 7, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Happy (belated) 400th birthday to the telescope! 2009 will mark the official International Year of Astronomy as the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations. However, the telescope itself was invented a bit before that. It’s invention may be attributed to Hans Lipperhey who applied for a patent on October 2, 1608. Also, happy 51st (belated) anniversary to Sputnik, which launched on October 4th, 1957.
So where does the future of science lie? With 13% of girls age 13-18, it seems! A recent poll from the UK caused some to lament that 31% of 1000 girls surveyed wanted to be models. But, as the Bad Astronomer points out, it’s great that such a large percentage at that age actually do want to be scientists! Could you imagine a world where 13% of the population actually were scientists? It might be a bit like Eureka. Unfortunately, in the real world, positions for scientists are a bit more scarce than that, and only a few of those girls will actually get opportunities to go on to science. However, a large number may decide that it just isn’t for them, or may go into a science-related field! I hope that none ever lose their love of it. And after all, 13% isn’t bad when models get reality tv shows and scientists, at least to my knowledge, do not. I have always said, however, that REU programs are ripe for reality tv. 10 undergrads from different institutions being thrown into a house/dorm together in a research environment? It could work.
For the record, I was 11 or 12 when I decided that I wanted to be an astronomer. I was about 5 when I decided I wanted to be a scientist. I had a mom who said “you can be whatever you want, I just want you to be happy,” and teachers who said, “oh yes, astronomy is an actual career path! Here are the classes you should take…” Thanks 
Oh, and for some astronomy NOW, new pictures of Mercury from the MESSENGER flyby!
Categories: astronomy · education
Tagged: childhood, history, space, telescope, women
Echoes and Screams in Space
October 4, 2008 · Leave a Comment
I’m just bubbling with writing, finally, just like the universe is bubbling with pretty things!
First, the wonderful, spinning, Carnival of Space #73 at Alice’s Astro Info.
The Bad Astronomer shows a really cool Spitzer image of the region around Cassiopeia A, a supernova remnant (and one of the first things our little radio telescope could see!), and the lit-up blobs of dust that make a cool light-echo! Other than the pretty image and cool science, I find light echoes to be pretty fascinating. You can see things happening that are related, but happened at different times, showing up in your telescope at the *same time* thanks to the finite speed of light and physics of the interactions. I knew very little about light echoes until I was studying for my PhD qualifying exam at UVa, to be honest. There were a bunch of questions on our old practice quals concerning light echoes, so we worked hard to solve them. One of my officemates actually did a great job of breaking the subject down for all of us to learn from, so not only were we prepared for the test, but we knew some cool astrophysics that was not covered in our classes! Needless to say, the light echo question did not pop up on our qual. Dems da breaks, kid…
Another article popped up about the Atheon, or “temple of science,” now with pictures. Wired interviews the artist, and although I still don’t agree with everything he says, it’s a pretty cool thing. And it gives another shout-out to a UVa astro prof and the sounds of the Big Bang…
… a descending scream, building into a deep rasping roar, and ending in a deafening hiss. As if this were not impressive enough, the entire acoustic show is itself the prelude to a wonderful transformation: the highest pitch sounds ultimately spawn the first generation of stars, while the deep bass notes slowly dissolve to become the tapestry of galaxies which now fills all of space.
Spooky.
Women in science, or just young scientists?
October 3, 2008 · 1 Comment
Sciencewoman (it’s like a superhero name!) writes about a recent study of young men and women in the sciences, and their interactions with mixed gender faculty. The study notes that even if professors try and treat all students in a similar fashion, that male students and female students may take these interactions differently in the end. Sciencewoman goes on to note:
Here’s what I wonder. Is it that professors are still subconsciously favoring men and doing a better job of encouraging them to move forward in their careers? Or is it that women students who spend time with faculty get a picture of what a busy, over-committed professional life is like and decide that they want no part in it?For undergraduates, I bet it’s predominantly the former ((sub)concious male favoritism) but by the time these women reach graduate school, I wonder if it isn’t the latter (stressful careers) that adds the lethal punch and reinforces stereotypical gender roles.
From my anecdotal experience, I did not find the first situation to be true. I went to a small liberal arts college and found that I and fellow women did lead the charge in group activities in our little physics world, and also, I think, performed just as well as men academically. I was especially encouraged by my professors to move ahead in science. Maybe I was just lucky.
Now, as a grad student, I’m feeling the effects of the second point, as also noted in SW’s comments. I see these young parent-professors who struggle to juggle it all, and other professors who seem to dedicate everything to just research. I want to have it all, too, but the juggling act is quite terrifying. I don’t know how that feeling is shared between genders, however. For one, I know that my post-doc-significant-other is similarly worried about such things, and he also wants to “do it all.” Be a researcher, a good teacher, have a family and hobbies and a life. So through him, I’ve seen this more as a “young scientist” or “parent-scientist” issue and not strictly a women’s issue in science. But maybe there’s a selection effect there, since I’m likely to choose someone with goals such as mine! However, my lucky high school and college upbringing, without a negative gender bias, could also hold significance.
More scary stuff…
October 2, 2008 · Leave a Comment
If this doesn’t make you pissed off or raving mad, I don’t know what will.
First, a terrorist attack on US soil, as blogged by PZ Myers. A mosque full with attendants for prayers was sprayed with a chemical irritant, allegedly by the good citizens of Dayton, Ohio. Don’t be assholes. Violence is NOT the answer.
Next a continuation of the saga of live burials in Pakistan over the rights of women to marry whom they choose. Send those emails. Write those letters. Show these governments that the world will not tolerate the deaths of innocents or the stamping out of human rights. Such killings must be investigated. Every day there are new stories of young women and men being killed for showing intent to marry whom they choose, or not marry whom they do not want, or for other domestic disputes, yet this is accepted by the mixture of religion, tribalism, and tradition in these regions. Those of us who can exercise the right to speak freely about this, should do so.
Categories: general
Tagged: culture, human rights
Debate 2008 and the Economy
October 2, 2008 · 1 Comment
With thesis proposal out of the way, I can finally focus on the world around me. Um, maybe I want to go back into my little hole after looking around…
I finally got a chance to catch up on the first presidential debate at Hulu. Needless to say, I was unimpressed. Besides the ridiculous fact that a debate on foreign affairs spent the first half hour on the US’s economic crisis, both candidates had good things to say, and both said things that annoyed me. Obama is in favor of retreating from Iraq within a reasonable time period… yay! He is, however, intent on expanding the military presence in Afghanistan. And I can’t help but wonder, will it do any good? McCain wants us to “win the war in Iraq” but I find it hard to believe that we’ll “win” anything at this rate. Both candidates give good lip service to more careful spending in government, though McCain is more forceful in his delivery. Even for a scientist such as myself, who sees important scientific work get hurt by spending cuts and freezes, and unsustainable government budget is something that we cannot live with. However, McCain shows little restraint when discussing government spending on defense (or what I call offense). Both candidates find time to bicker, contradict, appeal to emotion, and make outlandish promises. I don’t think I like politics in general, and my cynicism is only raised when I see that you can now Google quote mine for yourself! Like I mentioned before, there as plenty of talk of the struggling economy and the proposed bailout that was later voted down in the House that week. (And will be resurfacing?)
So what is one to make of the economic situation? Some say it’s dire, others that the economy is doing quite well despite the headlines. Mike Flynn at Reason says that it’s Wall Street’s problem, not Main Street’s. (Thanks, Seth, for the link!) Many are writing to their Congresspeople to stop the bailout on these and similar grounds. After all, wasn’t it government meddling that got us in this mess in the first place? Others, such as Obama, call this a failure of an unregulated market and call for more government intervention in its aftermath. One guest on NPR’s “On Point” said it was time for a “new New Deal.” (I wish I could remember who it was, I just happened to tune in to a bit on my way to work.) I’m no economist, so I can only share my virtually worthless anecdotes and opinions. Despite the cries of panic being uttered in the media, and the colossal failure of some well-known institutions, I do think this is the last stand of a rot from within that will only serve to clean up and help our economy in the long run. The failure of these businesses is due to their own poor practices, so don’t bail them out! However, their bad choices may influence many people who otherwise made good economic decisions on their own. So what do we do for them? Is the situation really that bad for most people if we’re still all buying iPods and Priuses? If the government contributed to this mess, shouldn’t they at least help clean it up? Is there a way to clean up the mess with taxpayers’ money, give the money back as rebates when the crisis is over, then begin to break up the marriage between government and business that has impeded the market so far? What do I know, I’m just a poor grad student.
I’m a brand new post-doc in astronomy working as part of the 
