[CAT] Shakespeare, dreaming

Shakespeare, dreaming (1)
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Shakespeare, dreaming (2)
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

[LINK] Some Friday links

• At Acts of Minor Treason, Andrew's very skeptical about the good sense of ideas to save money on the TTC by cutting service: positive feedback loops in negative directions are always nasty. (Thanks to mindstalk for correcting my terminology.)


• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shows pictures of the footsteps of the Apollo 12 astronauts taken by a recent Moon probe.


• Centauri Dreams reports that, in the recent tradition of astronomers finding smaller and more distant objects, a small chunk of ice a bit less than one kilometre across was found seven billion kilometres away from Earth by the Hubble.


• The Global Sociology blog tackles the nurture-versus-nature debate on gender differences and argues strongly on nurture's side.


• Joe. My. God lets us know that a North Carolina politician mocked the sexual orientation of another politician's dead gay son, and that Rwanda is also considering strongly homophobic legislation on the Ugandan model.


• Language Log's Geoff Nunberg discusses the question of how linguists should respond to conflicts of interest, with the discussions expanding upon what a conflict of interest for linguists actually is.


• Murdering Mouth wonders how, or if, you can break through to someone operating under a completely different paradigm.


• Inspired by Douglas Muir's posts from the Congo at Halfway Down the Danube, Noel Maurer uses Mexican history to demonstrate that banks and breweries can survive extreme levels of violence.


• Slap Upside the Head reports on anti-gay freakouts, among gamers unhappy with a same-sex encounter in a video game, and with homophobes who don't like a Nova Scotia MPs inclusion of a picture of him with his husband on his Christmas mailing.


• the F OR V M discusses the question of whether or not the failing of US companies to bid on Iraqi oil means that they expect significantly greater instability in that country in a year's time.

[BRIEF NOTE] On GJ 1214b

Centauri Dreams' summary of what's known about the newly discovered and very broadly Earth-like world GL 1214b works for me.

At a distance of 1.3 million miles, the planet orbits its star every 38 hours, with an estimated temperature a little over 200 degrees Celsius. Because GJ 1214b transits the star, astronomers are able to measure its radius, which turns out to be 2.7 times that of Earth. The density derived from this suggests a composition of about three-fourths water and other ices and one-fourth rock. Some of the planet’s water should be in the form of exotic materials like Ice VII, a crystalline form of water that is found at pressures greater than 20,000 Earth atmospheres:

“Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld,” said Zachory Berta, a graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) who first spotted the hint of the planet among the data. “It is much smaller, cooler, and more Earthlike than any other known exoplanet.”

That’s quite a find for the MEarth Project, which uses an array of eight 16-inch telescopes that monitor a list of 2000 red dwarf stars. The MEarth array is located at the top of Mount Hopkins, Arizona. MEarth looks for the tiny drop in brightness that indicates a transit, using data processing technologies to extract the planetary signature. If ever there was a find that should galvanize the amateur astronomy community, it’s this one, as David Charbonneau (CfA), who heads MEearth, is quick to note:

“Since we found the super-earth using a small ground-based telescope, this means that anyone else with a similar telescope and a good CCD camera can detect it too. Students around the world can now study this super-earth!”

Sifting through this material, what stands out is that the radius measured for GJ 1214b is larger than expected by current models. Remember, this is the second time we’ve found a transiting super-Earth, the first being CoRoT-7b. The latter has a similar mass but the radius of GJ 1214b is much larger. Indications are that a surrounding atmosphere some 200 kilometers thick is adding to the drop in stellar light measured in these transits. Charbonneau again:

“This atmosphere is much thicker than that of the Earth, so the high pressure and absence of light would rule out life as we know it, but these conditions are still very interesting, as they could allow for some complex chemistry to take place.”

Apart from the fact that this world can be found with a small ground-based telescope--who knew planet-finding could be so easy just a couple of decades ago?--this ocean planet could be quite typical: "Planetary objects that form in the outer solar system begin as a comet-like mixture of roughly 50% water and 50% rock by weight. Simulations of solar system formation have shown that planets are likely to migrate inward or outward as they form, presenting the possibility that icy planets could wind up in orbits where their ice melts into liquid form, turning them into ocean planets."

By comparison, GJ 1214b's density would make it 50% denser than the ice-rock Jovian moons of Callisto or Ganymede and is comparable to that of famed Europa. GJ 1214b's much too hot to be a Europa, sadly, but at least there's some interesting chemistry going on.

[LINK] "Value of a Degree"

At Extraordinary Observations, Rob Pitingolo writes about the declining marginal value of graduate school education.

The first woman to wear high-heeled shoes was at a distinct advantage being several inches taller than everyone else. But as more women started wearing them, the advantage started to fade. Eventually, high-heeled shoes generated no relative advantage, but became a sort of "requirement" in social situations. Granted, there's a big difference here, in the sense that a society is better off when everyone is well-educated, but there really isn't much social gain from women who appear a few inches taller. The problem is that the cost of educating everyone is so painfully expensive.

The Great Recession has had some strange impacts. There are people in my class who aren't even bothering to look for work, because enough people have told them they can just "ride it out" in grad school. I'm not complaining if it means less competition in my own entry-leveljob search, but for the people I care about, I'm not sure how it will ultimately play out. Two years from now, if the economy recovers, which person will be theoretically more employable?.. a bachelor's degree holder with two years of full-time professional experience? or a master's degree holder with none?

No comment.

[BRIEF NOTE] On how you can become famous by blowing up Uruguay

I've always had something of a soft spot for Uruguay. I'm not sure why I've an interest in a country I've never had any significant contact with. Perhaps it's because of Uruguay's long tradition of social democracy, the generally good-natured of a country that, Tupamaros and military regime aside, has helped make the country a somewhat more shabby but still useful and up and coming Hispanophone version of New Zealand. That's why I'm a bit perturbed to see, via Will Baird and Noel Maurer, Uruguay independent filmmaker Frederico Alvarez's short film Ataque de Pánico!. The film features robots blowing up Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital. And it cost $US 300.

Among the buildings blown up are (in order), the ANTEL Telecommunications Tower that's the tallest building in Uruguay, the Palacio Legislativo building that houses the national parliament, and the iconic 26-story Art Deco Palacio Salvo tower.

Since uploading the film to YouTube, Alvarez has done well for himself.

Would-be director Federico Alvarez, who runs a post-production visual effects house in Uruguay, filmed 'Panic Attack' with a budget of just $500 in his free time.

The five minute clip - which he then uploaded to YouTube - shows an invasion of Montevideo by giant robots and had special effects which could rival many big budget movies.

Once online it got the attention of thousands of movie fans… and (not surprisingly) studio bosses who wanted to meet with Alvarez to talk about his movie.

The 30-year-old was whisked to LA where he was offered a $1 million directors fee and up to £30 million to make the film, by Mandate Pictures. The plans for the movie are said to have a "compelling original story" beyond big robots blowing stuff up.

Alvarez has also been put up in a new apartment, given a new car and will work with "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi on developing the film.

As Bernard Guerrero said in Noel's comments, it's no surprise that with cheap cool films like this companies owning television networks are trying to unload them as quickly as they can.

[LINK] "If only the Tsar knew!"

Johnny Pez writes about the speculation that Obama might be purposely weakening the health care bill before Congressional discussion for the sake of his party's finances.

In this version of events, Joe Lieberman is not acting on his own to make the bill as unpleasant to liberals as possible. Instead, Lieberman is simply doing what Obama wants him to do: stripping out the parts of the bill that the health-care industry doesn't like, while keeping in the parts that the industry does like. Greenwald notes that Lieberman has received no criticism from the White House for doing this. Rather, the White House has reserved its criticism for Howard Dean, who has pointed out just how corporate-friendly the bill has become and who has publicly called for the defeat of the bill.

This is politics the DLC way: a big wet sloppy kiss for corporate interests and a flip of the bird to the party's liberal base. These are the principles that Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has espoused throughout his political career, and presumably that's why Obama made him Chief of Staff in the first place.

If this is what's really going on, then Obama is a DLC Democrat, and always has been. Those who defend Obama, saying that he was helpless to influence events, and that it was all Rahm's fault, or all Joe's fault, are in denial. It's no use crying, "If only the Tsar knew!" because, as always, the Tsar has known, and approved, all along.

Disappointing, sure, socialized health care would be good for the United States, but I've no idea why people expected that President Obama wouldn't act as a politician careful to ensure his continued viability as a leader after he was elected. Expecting him to be a messiah of some sort was ridiculous. The insanely lofty rhetoric used to describe a perfectly good and idealistic man is the sort of thing that got him a Nobel Peace Prize. Just because he's not George Bush doesn't mean that he's an angel.