STEREO Vision

Poor Comet Elenin is breaking up.

It was supposed to swing within 22 million miles of Earth, be visible to the naked eye, and bathe the planet it its tail next month. Alas, a breakup seems to have started a few weeks ago (whilst the East Coast was cloaked in hurricane Irene).

I figured we'd have to wait to get a good look at the thing (as it swings into SOHO's field of view sometime this week). But some curious footage has appeared on the intertoobs. It purports (and does appear) to show Elenin's breakup and deflection from a space-borne shockwave of some sort.

Did NASA's STEREO observers indeed provide us with a peek at something? On his own blog, Leonid Elenin mentions the breakup of his comet, but seems unaware of this STEREO footage. Perhaps the object in the STEREO footage is not actually Comet Elenin at all.

My understanding is that comets are relatively loose collections of ice, dirt and rock and may start breaking up as they approach the sun, warm up and start venting.  Or from gravitational forces (like the Shoemaker-Levy coment that hit Jupiter some time back).

According to Leonid Elenin, the pieces of his comet are now stretching out along it's path of travel (just as Shoemaker-Levy did). Clearly, though, the object of attention in the STEREO video is deflected from its course by some sort of shockwave.

It should be interesting to follow Elenin's fate -but- It all begs the question:  What the heck caused that shockwave?

I would sure like to hear Phil Plait's take on this.

---

[UPDATE:  I downloaded the raw images from STEREO's H1B rear camera and made my own animation of the event.  Upon review, I've decided that the "shockwave" is not a shockwave at all (but an optical effect) -and- the object in question (if it is Elenin) does not, in fact break up at all -but- continues along it's path (though intersecting with the light from another body and at the precise moment hit by the edge of an optical effect -- which I think might just be a lense-flarey kinda thing that's happening as Jupiter, the bright object to the far right, escapes the STEREO camera's field of view).  So there.]

Program or Be Programmed

Douglas Rushkoff

(1 hour, very much worth the investment of your time)

Photograph or Painting?

While on assignment in Namibia for National Geographic magazine, Frans Lanting captured this surreal landscape image in a location called Dead Vlei. Due to the nature of the lighting in the frame, the photograph appears almost like a painting.

(click to embiggen)
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/namibia-park/behind-the-photo

Jamie Beck's GIFs

(via: FromMe-ToYou)

Twirling in Pupping

Breakdown!!

Ahhhgggh!! Google is breaking!!

I can't use search to find anything on this blog (even when I know exact words that appear in the post title). Google Docs and Calendar have slowed down noticeably. The latest Android update to my phone seems to have completely disabled its headphone jack. And the little (Google-supplied) embedable JavaScript thingy that displays my shared Google Reader items no longer renders under Chrome.

Does anyone have a phone number I can call for support with The Googles?

Quite Notable

Despite what Wikipedia has to say:

( ouch! )

I've found Mr. David Foster quite notable enough to warrant note -- right here.

Has this ever happened?

The Onion Radio News (from today, 90 seconds):
http://www.theonion.com/audio/christian-weightlifter-bends-iron-bar-to-demonstra,18675/

I've seen Onion stories play out later in real life, but never the other way 'round.

In Praise of the Unintelligible

I love to listening to unintelligible things -- a lot.

Sometimes, with Chinese television running in the background, I'm lulled by the sing-songiness of words I do not know, and delighted when it's punctuated with an occasional borrowed English phrase or notable name.

It works for wailing saxophone and screaming electric guitars too. Likewise speaking in tongues and those songs that cry out from the deserts of the middle east.

I love them all. Oh: And the Bushes! It's always fun to listen to one of the Bushes at the podium, talking to the press. Dubya's good, but his Dad can be deliciously cryptic.

Typically, attempting to grok this nonsense is its own reward. I feel no need to transcribe it. Meaning can almost always be felt. But now I come to the coup de grâce. It's perhaps the greatest snippet of unintelligible jabber EVAR!! (I just might make it my ringtone)

I could listen to it again and again and again.

(and, sadly, have)

I present: a few seconds of Miley Cyrus tripping her head off from salvia on the occassion of her 18th birthday (while, of course, being video'd by a "good friend" for the all the interwebs to see).

And here's my first attempt at a transcription:

Wha did the ...

What did they make me do?

Ahr rehleh wuh da know that.

Al mon de be a ahgo fit.

They got a little de make me just sue.

If I give ya vuhduh vuhduh den,

they don't know the interneg all day.

Oh we ayo item.

I don't wanna go lah wha lah.

(at first listen this seemed completely unintelligible, but upon re-re-reflection ... it might just be a letigious warning to her companion with the vid phone)

!! Yay for Augmented Reality !!