Spooky Hurricane Science

Source - NASA Science News for September 12, 2008

Spooky Hurricane Science

To improve hurricane forecasting, NASA engineers are spending time in a spooky room where 'no one can hear you scream.'

FULL STORY at:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/12sep_scream.htm?list894285

Naked-Eye Gamma-ray Burst Aimed Directly at Earth

Source - NASA Science News for September 10, 2008:

Naked-Eye Gamma-ray Burst Aimed Directly at Earth

Scientists are beginning to unravel the mystery of an extraordinary gamma-ray burst on March 19, 2008, which was visible to the naked eye. It turns out the explosion was aimed directly at Earth.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/10sep_nakedeye2.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!

Check out the Astro Link Blog when you have time!

The Astro Link Blog is a sibling blog to the Cloudymidnights Blog with a slightly different purpose than this blog.

Laura Kinoshita is one of the contributors to the blog, and her focus is to post astronomy news that the mainstream media has been missing.

If you have a chance, give the Astro Link Blog a peek, and be sure to take a look at Laura's first entry titled "Mini Black Holes No Danger".

Cheers,

Jim Cox

Space Weather News for Sept. 9, 2008

Source: SpaceWeather.com

Fireball Outburst
Space Weather News for Sept. 9, 2008
http://spaceweather.com

FIREBALL OUTBURST: This morning, Sept. 9th, a surprising flurry of fireballs lit up the sky over eastern parts of the United States. All-sky cameras at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recorded 25+ meteors, most as bright as Jupiter or Venus. A preliminary analysis by NASA astronomers suggests this is an outburst of "September Perseids," a little-known shower that has erupted this way three times in the past century. Although the show is almost certainly over, sky watchers are advised to be on the lookout for more fireballs tonight and in the nights ahead; the September Perseids are not well understood and they could surprise us again.

Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information and updates to this developing story.

Are We Alone - TXT MSG: Behavior

Are We Alone - TXT MSG: Behavior
From iPods to Google to Facebook - information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected - but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the second of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.

Part II: Behavior: how computers compel us to interact with them... why your iPod may improve your health... why Facebook may leave you friendless... the unintended consequences of past innovation... and the growing threat of "videophilia." Guests:

• BJ Fogg - Experimental Psychologist and Director of Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab
• James Levine - Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic
• Andrew Keen - Author of The Cult of the Amateur; How the Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting our Economy
• Patricia Zaradic - Conservation Ecologist with the Red Rock Institute
• Edward Tenner - Writer and consultant on technology and culture at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, and author of Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences and, most recently, Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity

You can listen to this and other episodes at: http://radio.seti.org/ and be sure to check the Are We Alone Profile and Blog on MySpace.

NASA to Explore a "Secret Layer" of the Sun

Source - NASA Science News for September 5, 2008:

NASA to Explore a "Secret Layer" of the Sun

NASA researchers are preparing to launch an experimental telescope that can see a "secret layer" of the sun thought to be the birthplace of space weather.

FULL STORY at:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/05sep_sumi.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at: http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!

Amateur Astronomers See Perseids Hit the Moon

Source: NASA Science News for September 2, 2008

Amateur astronomers watching the Perseid meteor shower last month saw meteoroids hitting not only Earth but also the Moon. The impacts, which they recorded using backyard telescopes and off-the-shelf video cameras, are featured in today's story from Science@NASA.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/02sep_lunarperseids.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!

Are We Alone - Next show available Sept. 1, 2008

Are We Alone - Next show available September 1, 2008 TXT MSG: Thought
From iPods to Google to Facebook - information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected - but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the first of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.

Part I: Thought: whether Google is making us stupid... how the Internet is curtailing creativity... and the future of a hyper-networked world that does all our thinking for us.
Guests:

• Nick Carr - Journalist and author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. His article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" is the cover story of the July/August 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly
• Jonathan Grudin - Researches human-computer interaction at Microsoft Corporation
• David Kirsh - Cognitive scientist, University of California, San Diego
• Jonathan Zittrain - Author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It and co-founder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society

You can listen to this and other episodes at: http://radio.seti.org/ and be sure to check the Are We Alone Profile and Blog on MySpace.

Space Weather News for Aug 31, 2008

Posted on behalf of Space Weather.com

Volcanic Sunsets
Space Weather News for Aug 31, 2008
http://spaceweather.com

Sky watchers across the USA and Europe are reporting unusually colorful sunsets and sunrises. The cause appears to be the August 7th eruption of the Kasatochi volcano in Alaska's Aleutian islands. The volcano hurled a massive cloud of ash and sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere; high winds have since carried the aerosols over parts of the USA and Europe. "Violet domes," long pink rays crossing the sky, campfire-red aureoles around Venus--these are just a few of the sights documented on Spaceweather.com in recent days. When the sun goes down tonight, look west. You may be in for a treat.

Ongoing coverage of the phenomenon may be found at http://spaceweather.com .

First reports of the volcanic sunsets are documented in the Aug. 27th edition of SpaceWeather.com, located in our archives at this URL:

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=27&month=08&year=2008

Are We Alone - August 25, 2008: Skeptical Sunday

Are We Alone - Next show available August 25, 2008: Skeptical Sunday: Bigfoot Press Conference
Finally, Bigfoot meets habeus corpus: three men claim they have the body of the elusive hirsute creature on ice, and throw a big press conference to prove it. Lots of journalists show up, as do the Bigfoot baggers. Days later the purported historic discovery turned out to be - gasp! - a hairy hoax. How did these men perpetuate the con - and why did the media, including Are We Alone?, bother to cover it?
Join us front row and center at this peculiar press event and for the post-mortem (sans body) of the latest chapter in the ongoing mythology that is Bigfoot.
Guests for this episode are:

• Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University
• James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles

You can listen to this and other episodes at: http://radio.seti.org/

NASA Science News for August 25, 2008

The following is posted on behalf of NASA Science news:

Strange Clouds at the Edge of Space - NASA Science News for August 25, 2008

High above Earth, astronauts on board the International Space Station have taken one of the best-ever photos of electric-blue noctilucent clouds. Their image, featured in today's story from Science@NASA, highlights a growing mystery: Where do these clouds come from and why
are they spreading?

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/25aug_nlc.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!

Moses Lake doubles for the Moon

KOMONews.Com posted this article a while back about NASA conducting tests with prototype space suits and vehicles in Moses Lake WA. According to the article "The tests started in late May in the Moses Lake Sand Dunes, a 3,000-acre off-road vehicle park." The article is fairly detailed and has some great shots of the spaces suits and vehicles. One thing I didn't know about Moses Lake is that there is a closed B-52 base there that NASA has designated as an emergency landing site for the space shuttle. Hopefully NASA will come back for more tests, and if they do it might be worth a trip out to Moses Lake to maybe catch a glimpse of the new Lunar hardware.

MSNBC ‘cosmic ghost’ article

There have been quite a few articles about the recently discovered "cosmic ghost", and here is another one from MSNBC. Congrats to Hanny van Arkel, the Dutch amateur astronomer who discovered the object as part of the Galaxy Zoo Project. You have to love the nickname: "Hanny's Voorwerp"! ~ Jim

NASA Unveils Cosmic Images Book in Braille for Blind Readers

I was recently made aware of an article posted on the HubbleSite entitled "NASA Unveils Cosmic Images Book in Braille for Blind Readers" regarding the release of the book "Touch the Invisible Sky" which is an astronomy book for the blind and visually impaired.

I want to write more about this, but I am running a little late so I will follow up in a few days or so, but here are a few more links regarding the book:

NASA:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/15jan_touch.htm

Bad Astronomy:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/01/15/touch-the-invisible-universe/

Space.com:
http://www.space.com/entertainment/080118-entertainment-invisible-sky.html

Please fee free to comment regarding this great new book for blind and visually impaired astronomers.

Regards!

Jim

Updating the look of the blog.

Just a brief note to say that I am in the process of updating the blog, and adding some new features.

First off I changed the blog template because I felt the original was just a little too cluttered for my taste. I also set a common font for all the text, and changed the color scheme.

Now I may have defeated the de-cluttering by adding some RSS feeds, but I think they will add to the blog. I added feeds for "Are We Alone?" from the SETI Institute, Planet Pride which is a blog on MySpace dedicated to minor planets, and Science News from NASA.

If you happen to read this blog on a regular basis, drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Jim