Best science article I've seen on a mainstream newspaper's web site in ages.

Martin Robbins totally nails it in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/24/1

Snow in All 50

Late in the week of February 6-13, 2010, the Florida Panhandle got some snow. This led to a lot of articles in the media along the lines of "OMG there's snow on the ground in all 50 states at once!" and a similar amount along the lines of "OMG there's snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states, with Hawaii being the only exception." Hawaii does get snow, of course - on Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and rarely even Haleakala - but there hadn't been any snowfall of consequence since December.

Having worked atop Mauna Kea for years, I know that the terrain can be conducive to snow sticking around, especially on the north slopes of cinder cones where it gets less sun. And I knew that earlier in the week, I had seen a few patches of snow remaining in a basin on the north side of the Subaru Telescope, where I work, and the adjacent W.M. Keck Observatory. On the afternoon of Saturday, February 13, between 15:21 and 15:28 local time, I was able to take a series of photos including this one, using an iPhone 3G.

Annular Solar Eclipse Time-Lapse

Although I already posted a composite image made from several exposures of the eclipse , I had quite a lot of frames, so I went back through and made an actual little time-lapse QuickTime movie of it.

If it seems that it gets brighter or less bright at times, that's mostly just due to me not being sure what exposure time to use, and generally cycling through a few of them (1/40, 1/50, 1/60, 1/80, 1/100) but forgetting to do so at some points and winding up with, say, only 1/40 or only 1/100 at certain phases of the eclipse.

Annular Solar Eclipse, 15 Jan 2010

I shot a multi-exposure sequence of this morning's annular solar eclipse from Kampala, Uganda. After thirteen cloudy mornings in a row, the sky was clear for the eclipse!

From the time the moon started going in front of one side of the sun, to the time it finished coming out from the other side, took about 3 hours. But the "ring" only lasted 6-8 minutes. 

Along with Thousand Oaks black polymer solar filters for the ends of my camera's lenses, I brought a few pairs of mylar sunglasses, so that people around me could safely get views of the eclipse.

The Christmas Modem Twit, 2009 Edition

Back in days of yore, when no one had anything more than a modem, and most people who had modems at home used them simply to call BBSes, as opposed to dialing into the Internet, BBS system operators (Sysops) and experienced users were annually beset with clueless new users who found modems under the Christmas tree, dubbed "Christmas modem twits."

On the Internet, of course, the influx of clueless newbies occurred at the start of the academic year in September, when incoming Freshmen gained access to things like Usenet discussion groups.  When AOL began offering its broader, less-educated userbase access to Usenet in 1993, it was referred to as "the September that never ends."

I woke this morning to find a BusinessWeek blurb online entitled "Apple iPod Touch Application Downloads Jump 1,000% on Christmas, and I thought, "Well, du-u-uh!"

A research firm says this jump signals that "sales of the media player surged during the holiday season." Oh, really?  How about signaling that sales were spread out over the holiday season, but a lot of people actually received theirs on the same day?  Do research firms not understand how Christmas works or something?

Apparently one spokesman doesn't, since he says, "iPod Touch devices must have flooded the market over Christmas."  Wait... thousands of people all received a popular electronic gadget, and started using it, on the same day, which just happens to be a popular gift-giving holiday?  I have some more shocking news for you: water is wet, fire is hot.

25 minutes of Mauna Kea

 While writing up an astrophotography semester project for one of my classes, I realized that I had been taking all my star trails from down at the Onizuka Center, and thought the top of Pu'u Kalepeamoa would be a better vantage point.

Polaris and star trails over Mauna Kea, with vehicular light trail on the summit access road, and the glow of lights at Hale Pohaku, the mid-level astronomers' lodging facility at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy. 25-minute exposure.

The Crusher (review)

Last week, I purchased a Basic Industries International aluminum can crusher, and installed it in my kitchen. Here in Hawaii, aluminum beverage cans have a 5-cent deposit, and crushing them means I can take more of them to the recycling drop-off in a single trip. "The Crusher" comes in three different models - a single-can open-framework one, an open-framework one with a multi-can chute on top, and a solid-sided one.

After checking them all out at Ace Hardware around the corner, I chose the solid-sided one (model 77701), since it was clearly the only design that could handle cans larger than 12 ounces, and Coca-Cola brands come in 16-ounce cans here. I think it may still not be able to handle the huge Arizona Iced Tea cans, though.

Installation was easy enough, requiring only three rather sturdy screws and a stable place to mount it. I took a few photos and made a single image to show what it is and what it does.

So far I like it, overall. Occasionally a half-crushed can does slip out during the crushing process, but not often. Other than that, and the possible inability to handle giant cans from iced tea that I don't drink anyway, I have no problems with it.