Moonday: Amalthea

(Image from Wikipedia; full article here) At 83 km in diameter (~50 mi), Amalthea was the fifth discovered moon of Jupiter (the first four were the large Galilean satellites), and the last planetary satellite to be discovered by direct visual observation, as opposed to photographically. Given that the above Galileo images are among the highest quality available, it should be unsurprising not too much is known about this object. A couple of seemingly unrelated facts do constrain its history, though. First, Jupiter would loom in the sky, covering more than 45 degrees of arc; in other words, if you drew a horizon-to-horizon line, Jupiter would cover more than quarter of that. Second, recent observations strongly indicate that Amalthea is icy. Since the young planet was very hot, we can conclude Amalthea did not form where it is today. It either migrated from a more distant orbit, or was captured by Jupiter later in its history.

Rain Today

The weather service has been predicting showers from this evening through Thursday, and here they come, right on schedule. It's nearly 80, with dewpoints (variable by station) in the mid 50's. To me, this feels slightly muggy, but not unpleasantly so. We've had so little warm weather in the first half of 2011 that this is quite appreciated. On the other hand, I adore warm weather rain, so I'm looking forward to the change, too. And, as there is a good chance this will be the last substantive precipitation we have until fall, I feel duty-bound to savor it. I'll get tired of unending clear skies, blistering sunshine and heat soon enough, just as I'm tired of clammy dampness right now.

As general rule of thumb, I tell people that the PNW has the best weather in the world. We just have too damned much of it at stretch. This week may well end up being my favorite-weather-wise- of the year: plenty of variety.

Science by Press Release

I've been spending more and more time on Twitter, with a result of less time here. Partly that's because I've been having a slew of aging computer, connectivity and software problems (Seriously Adobe, your plug-ins couldn't cause more issues?), and partly it's because sharing a quick comment and link on Twitter is just so much faster and easier... especially when aforementioned problems are causing my computer to go into lockdown every 3 to 5 minutes.

The downside is that Twitter, like Facebook, is very much ephemeral. It is next to impossible to find a particular tweet unless it's pretty recent.

I got onto another Twitter rip today, with the theme of "If Science by press release existed in [...]'s day," satirizing the kind of sensationalistic, overly dramatic, factually challenged, and premature types of reports that pass for science journalism these days. So for the sake of a permanent record- for my own satisfaction, at least- here are my tweets (and one from another) on that topic:
If Science by Press Release existed in...

• Newton's Day: "New Discovery May Lead to Space Flight: Report."
• Stone Age: "Control of Fire May Resolve Transportation Problems Says Eminent Witch Doctor."
• Pasteur's Day: "Animicule Theory Could Lead to New treatments for Bad Air."
• Archimedes' Day: "Application of Density to Astronomy Suggests New Class of Exotic Space Objects."
• Becher's day: "Phlogiston Theory Supports Existence of Human Soul, Angels, Demons, Study Says."
• Eratosthenes' day: "Shape, Size of the world: Controversy and Conflict Among the Experts"
• Agricola's day: "New Study to Examine differences between Dwarf and Kobold Mining Techniques."
• Socrates' day: "Announcement: New Element Discovered, Named 'Aether.'"
• Pliny's day: "The Next Supervolcano Eruption and You: Is YOUR Family Safe?"
• Mendel's day: "Peagate 'Proves Inheritance is Hoax:' Scientific Report" (with followup comment from @canislatrans, "Gene Skeptics Scoff at New Wrinkle in Mendelist Theory")
• Hutton's day: "Claim: Earth May Be One Million Years Old. Theologists Express Skepticism, Outrage."
• Mendelev's day: "New Periodic Organization Dismissed: Chemists Prefer Traditional, Alphabetic Order.

Also, from @aboutgeology, If science by press release existed in Darwin's day: "It All Comes Down to Sex: New Study by Fossil Sleuth"

I'll add any others that I come up with, and, with appropriate credit, other folks post. How would your favorite scientist(s) have been misquoted, misrepresented or misinterpreted by today's so-called "journalism?"

Tuesday Tits

see more So Much Pun. I wasn't even expecting to open my blog today, but I came across this a moment ago and couldn't pass it up.

Moonday: Helene (Again)

I won't make a habit of using the same moon twice in a row, but this is too cool to pass up. NASA's image of the day is a high-resolution shot of Helene, captured by Cassini just two days ago. I'm struck by the evident streamers on the surface... I have some ideas what they might be, but I'll keep them to myself. Poorly informed guesses can cause more problems than they're worth. (Full size image here; definitely worthwhile)

Sunday Funnies: Game of Thrones of Muppets Edition

I'm looking forward to watching the season finale, but not to waiting for the next season to start airing. Of course, that's nothing compared to the- what, 5 years? 6 years?- wait we've had to endure for book 5, A Dance with Dragons. Does anyone know when season 2 starts?

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E.B. Misfit- "All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chan----
Ah, Fuck It, Let's Go Shoot Something."

Phil, this wasn’t fucking amateur hour. PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE OF YOUR LACK OF SUPERVISION. THERE WERE RAPTORS ALL UP IN THE KITCHEN PHIL. IN THE GOD DAMN KITCHEN.

YOU HAD ONE JOB PHIL. ONE JOB.

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...which then give rise to copious amounts of bacteria. And so the circle of life continues. Fake Science
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Peanutweeter has apparently been cease-and-desisted to death, so this is likely the last from them. :(

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