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Thursday, November 28th, 2013
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3:55 pm - Comet Ison updates
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| Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
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1:52 pm - Psst, Australians ...
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... CFIDS/ME sufferers and normal controls needed NOW for chronic fatigue study. Pass it on!
(This post public, for easier sharing.)
___________________________________________
National Centre for Neuroimmunology and
Emerging Diseases - NCNED
Dear all,
NCNED would like to thank all participants,
however, we are still looking for more! If you
would like to participate as a ME/CFS
PARTICIPANT or as a HEALTHY CONTROL or
know of anyone that would like to participate,
you can help us by donating blood to assist
us in finding an immunological biomarker for
ME/CFS.
Please call (07)56789283 or email
ncned@griffith.edu.au for more information
and to organise an appointment.
Participants blood collection site are in Gold
Coast and Brisbane area:
1. Robina Hospital,
2. NCNED Center (Griffith Univeristy on
Parkland Drive)
2. Logan Hospital
3. Royal Women Brisbane hospital
4. Tweed Hospital
As this study is commencing in November,
please contact us directly as dates are filling
up.
Thank you,
NCNED Team
( The National Centre for Neuroimmunology and
Emerging Diseases (NCNED) is a research team
situated at Griffith University on the Gold
Coast, lead by Professor Sonya Marshall-
Gradisnik. We focus on Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.)
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| Friday, September 6th, 2013
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7:31 pm - To the moon! tonight!
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| Friday, May 31st, 2013
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1:17 pm - Coming now to a sky near you ...
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... an asteroid and its moon. Closest approach of this flyby for 1998 QE2 and its companion will be later today -- 20:59 UTC / 4:59 pm EDT / 1:59 pm PDT, according to SpaceWeather.com -- but viewing for amateur astronomers will be better over the next week, writes NASA's Dr. Tony Phillips.
"Newly-obtained radar images show that 1998 QE2 is a binary system. The 2.7 km wide primary is circled by a smaller 600 meter satellite," Phillips says in his SpaceWeather.com report.
But not to worry -- yet. The pair will whizz by well outside of Luna's orbit on this pass, at a projected 5.8 million km from Earth.
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current mood:  geeky
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
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10:21 am - Happy spring!
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... Or, for those south of the equator, happy autumn.
Yes, today is the equinox: the sun crossed the celestial equator this morning at 11:02 GMT / 7:02 EDT.
No, it isn't feeling very spring-like -- at least, not in the USA or the UK. But, hey, give it time.
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| Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
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8:55 am - spectacular
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| Thursday, February 28th, 2013
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5:16 pm - Rare Diseases Day
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| Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
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12:13 pm - Snow Moon "planet"
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| Thursday, February 14th, 2013
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9:08 am - Very near earth asteroid day approacheth!
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Tomorrow is flyby day for that space rock I mentioned a few months back, the one that will be diving inside geostationary orbit -- at about 19:25 UT / 14:25 EST / 11:25 PST, JPL data show -- swooping by at about 9% of the distance between Earth and its Moon.
So, how close *is* that? Weather.com has a good discussion of the scale of the asteroid and the nearness and speed of its closest approach.
Space billiards remain unlikely: Geosynch is a big shell, and mostly empty. It also is far enough out that, yes, astronomers are quite sure this asteroid will NOT hit the Earth. And that's a very good thing as, at an estimated 50 to 65 m in diameter, 2012 DA14 is about the same size as the rocks "responsible for the Meteor Crater in Arizona and the Tunguska Event in Siberia," says SpaceWeather.com.
This rock is very fast and fairly dim, so not a great candidate for home viewing, even if you have a telescope. So if you want to see the big event, check out NASA TV tomorrow at 2 pm EST (yes, 14:00); live video from Australian and European observatories is due to begin a couple hours earlier.
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current mood: geeky
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| Monday, January 21st, 2013
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2:07 pm - Lo(w)! in the East!
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This evening, after sunset, step outside and look the other way. (A clear sky and line of sight will help, of course.)
Jupiter and Luna will hang side by side, separated by less than a single degree, in the Earthly sky. (Folks in South America may even get to see our moon pass in front of the gas giant. Close enough for ya? ;-) Should be decorative -- and photogenic, especially as Jupiter is still so close and bright.
Thanks to SpaceWeather.com for the heads-up ...
... and for spotlighting a submitted photo of the Aurora-lit sky above and bioluminescent bacteria-lit shore along the seaside in Sortland, Norway. Go, look. It's like a glimpse of Faerie.
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current mood: geeky
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| Thursday, December 20th, 2012
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3:48 pm - Reassurance of the Ancients
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| Sunday, December 16th, 2012
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7:55 pm - Water in Winter
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| Saturday, December 15th, 2012
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9:08 pm - Good stuff; good prices; good cause
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One of my LJ friends is in a rough spot: ![[profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) leopardwolf is disabled and chronically ill and even more broke than I am.
Luckily, she's also a talented craftswoman and artist.
Please consider buying from her this shopping season, should anything at her Etsy shop strike your fancy. (Custom work also available.) Works in stock -- at $5 and up -- include "real media" paintings, totem-like sculptures, pet portraits, ceramics, dreamcatchers, holiday ornaments, and fun and funky jewelry.
I am inordinately fond of LW's fishing lure earrings -- for instance, who wouldn't take a shine to these little guys: http://www.etsy.com/listing/87083895/e-lure-blue-shiner-fishing-lure-earrings?ref=cat_gallery_19 ($16) -- but I also really like some of the carved ceramics and more-serious jewelry.
Her online store is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LeopardWolf
Let the shopping begin!
(For examples of other works by LeopardWolf, beyond what's currently in stock -- as well as pictures of her service dog, Ember, and their pet cat, Wasabi -- take a peek at her DeviantArt gallery, here: http://leopardwolf.deviantart.com)
(And, yes, I am still loving that Calla lily vase! But so were a lot of other people ... I see more in her future!)
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current mood:  hopeful
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
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11:59 pm - Meteor shower!
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The Geminid meteor shower* is under way, peaking tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night. Might be hitting 120/hour, says SpaceWeather.com, which has a nice photo up already, plus links, good links.
• Best time to look? 10 pm or so until dawn -- especially the wee smalls.
• Best place to look? Up, and away from bright lights. No, really!
For more tips on stalking the wily shooting star, check out this keen post by peteralway.
(* Another meteor shower may be adding to the incendiary action; learn more at SpaceWeather.com.)
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current mood: geeky
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| Monday, December 10th, 2012
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10:03 am - MoMath opens Dec.15 in Manhattan
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The new Museum of Mathematics -- "MoMath" -- aims to revive the fun and wonder of math, and show that it doesn't end with arithmetic.
(Like what? well, like Tetris, that's math, too.)
MoMath looks and sounds like the perfect day trip for the child geek, and the geekchild at heart. Thanks to New Scientist for the heads-up.
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current mood: geeky
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
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2:55 pm - Superstorm Bopha
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| Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
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11:48 pm - Coming soon - and close
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In mid-February, a space rock whose elliptical orbit apparently has been bringing it through our neck of the solar system every 366 days will be swinging by again -- but this time, closer.
The object in question -- 2012 DA14 -- was first spotted as it passed us early this year, and its orbit was calculated in May, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It has a diameter of about 57 meters, or six-tenths of a football field: impressive, but well short of the 100-meter cutoff for "potentially hazardous" asteroids.*
2012 DA14 is not notably big, nor notably bright. It will, however, be notably nearby.
At its closest approach -- at 19:25 UT (+/- 2 minutes) on February 15, 2013 -- it is expected to maintain a distance from our planet of 0.09 LD, according to the table of recent and upcoming near and not-so-near misses at SpaceWeather.com That's 9 percent of the Lunar Distance (from the surface of Earth to the surface of the Moon) or about 34,600 kilometers.
( More numbers, a bit of math, and the reason they matterCollapse )
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current mood: geeky
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, November 17th, 2012
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12:28 pm - The one true chocolate
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The delicate but highly prized "criollo" variant of the cacao plant had been thought lost forever. Most of the world's chocolate is produced from the beans of the hardier and more prolific "forastero" plant, the Mother Nature Network reports, while the high-end chocolates -- about 10% of the total -- come from a criollo-forastero hybrid known as trinitario.
Now, surviving plants of the pure criollo strain have been found in Madagascar by the fair trade and fine chocolate advocates at the Madecasse Chocolate Co. Also discovered during the cacao quest were plants of the rare amelonado variety.
Great news for growers and gourmands -- and, perhaps, for the island's fragile ecosystem.
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current mood:  curious
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(28 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, November 11th, 2012
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3:36 pm - Everybunny needs somebunny sometime
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Hi, all: One of the best friends I've never met, madness_begins, lives in the superstorm zone. For the two weeks since Sandy, she's mostly been crashing with friends, since power and heat have yet to be restored to her neighborhood. But that's not why I'm writing.
MB is also a responsible pet owner, and her baby bunny is just about due for his neutering. The problem is, replacing some of the food she lost to the flooding has broken MB's very limited budget. So, she's asking for help -- over here: http://www.gofundme.com/bunny-neutering -- not for herself, but for her little fuzzball, Dr. Pepper.
 ( ...Collapse )
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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3:13 pm - Honouring our veterans, and our committments
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awestruck
amused
appreciative