EGAD
or, (de)mythologizing the fetish of placewherein our unlikely hero composes a series of
empirical geo-anthrospatial dispatches, aimed at establishing just where
he is, and perhaps even why it matters
The Mass, Light, and Chemistry cosmology conference is over, and I have learned that I really cannot make myself care that much about chemical evolution. On the other hand, once we get this CMB B-mode measurement nailed down in a few years, the next big observational challenge is going to be radio detection of the epoch of reionization via (massively) redshifted 21-cm emission. That sounds like something I'll be able to sink my teeth into. Along those lines, does anyone else think it would be cool to build our own miniature 21CMA/PaST-style array? From Ue-Li's description of the project, it sounded downright ... scavvy.
But, the world continues to turn. As I was unpleasantly reminded this morning when I heard of the earthquake felt across India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Apparently centered somewhere in Kashmir, remote villages were wiped out and the relatively nearby slums of Islamabad crumbled. Tens of thousands are feared dead.
Closer to home, Hurricane Stan is the storm that didn't make news, although the U.S. media can almost be forgiven the oversight, considering. Almost. Unless you live in Central America, in which case it's a major disaster. The usual sorts of aid are en route from the U.S. government and private outfits, but it should be emphasized that this administration's relationship to Central America is conflicted at best and outright hostile at worst.
And speaking of all this flooding, this is the coolest and most obvious idea in the history of flood control since the invention of dikes. Once again, when it comes to living with water, leave it to the Dutch.
And in closing, though I am nominally much more of a Cubs fan, due props must go out to the White Sox. Or "Palehose", if you prefer, but I think that sounds unendingly weird.
Posted by Milligan at October 9, 2005 07:40 PM | TrackBackWhoa, wait...you can't really mean that you prefer the Cubs over the Sox...I mean...the Cubs are on the North Side! You know that, don't you? North Side! You must be confused-that's all. It's all just a mistake.
Oh dear...I'm hyperventilating.
GO WHITE SOX!!!
Posted by: Mega at October 9, 2005 10:45 PM (Permalink)Quite frankly I can tell from the online agenda that conference didn't cover anything about chemical evolution. It may have paid it some lip service but it didn't have any of the real astro-physical chemists there to give the meat and potatoes about how that is done. Beers is good, but mainly he is a user and interpreter of data, not the guy doing the heavy lifting and he was only one talk so there wasn't much of a chance to give you a real "fair-and-blanced" taste of chemical evolution.
The lack of meat-and-potatos and the fact that the GD conference went over the weekend (which are MY DAYS not theirs) is mainly why I stayed away and worked instead.