Daily Archives: September 29, 2009

Clusters

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I’m sitting on the sofa watching what has so far been a really excellent episode of The Universe on the History Channel. It is entitled “Cosmic Clusters” and it has been a lovely journey (15 minutes show time gone by so far) on an imaginary spaceship ride through the galaxy looking at formations of star clusters, and discussing the process of star formation in those clusters, their birth and the conditions involved, how those conditions change as things progress, the different kinds of stars that can result, the curious case of globular clusters (M13 is pictured below, by Yuugi Kitahara) and so forth. I think it is going to go on to discuss clusters of galaxies, and clusters of those…

m13_kitahara

I’ve learned quite a bit so far from watching it, actually. It is a really lovely discussion with excellent contributions from my friend and colleague Amy Mainzer, Alex […] Click to continue reading this post →

More Book Fun!

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bookfair_homeMark your calendar for Sunday! The West Hollywood Book Fair is on from 10 am to 6:00 pm that day, and there’s so much to see and do with readings, panels, discussions, authors, special celebrity guests, food, exhibitions, writing workshops, discount book offers, signings, swag (no doubt), and so forth. I’ve not been before, but as you know from reading here I’m a big fan of cities going gaga over books for a while, being a regular visitor to the LA Times Book Festival when it comes in the Spring. The calendar of events and much more about the event can be found at the website here.

Here’s another thing. Despite the fact there was no mention of a spankingly splendid […] Click to continue reading this post →

Forward Looking

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optometerySo, do you like it? My new glasses. Think it’s a good look for me? Sort of gadgeteer-scientist extreme. With this I get all the different optical instrumentation combinations I need in one nifty device. Long distance viewing for seeing whether my bus is coming from a long way away, lenses for extreme closeup work in the workshop, night vision, the works…Neat, no?

Ok, I’m being silly. I went to the optometrist today after a bit of a long period between tests, and I always find it an interesting experience. I’m not sure why, but it […] Click to continue reading this post →