Deep Impact: A Smashing Success

.

(Get it? “Smashing” Success? Ha ha! I made funny!) Since my ranting about Da Vinci Code and Western Union have bumped down the good astronomy material, here’s the latest stuff on the Deep Impact comet mission:

Congrats to the JPL team for another successful mission. Enjoy the hard planetary science coming out of Deep Impact now, and may the Funding be with you.

This Isn’t the Da Vinci Code You’re Looking For

.

I can understand the point of view of people who think “Da Vinci Code” is a good read, though I didn’t think it was one myself. (I felt like I was reading the solution to a puzzle-based video game, with chapter breaks before each boss level.) I can also understand people who are skeptical about certain areas of Roman Catholicism — as a Protestant, I’m a skeptic myself, though not for the reasons put forward by the “Da Vinci Code’s” sources.

But when people start defending “Da Vinci Code” as though they actually believe in it, then tell me that my “attacks” on their beloved book and its sources are merely driven by blind faith, despite my own references to secular and skeptical historians and researchers; well, I have to view them with the same skepticism and amusement I usually reserve for people who tell me that tourists’ kidneys are being stolen in hotels. That’s about the same level of credibility I give to the book’s laughable conspiracy driven plot about the church covering up a bizarre femino-pagan Magdalenic cult, despite rational history’s evidence to the contrary.

Da Vinci Code is to art and church history what the movie Armageddon was to astronomy. If Dan Brown does anything well, it’s absurdity well packaged. This is all material I’ve covered before, but experience has shown that the general public isn’t exactly into real research, and that’s nothing new. Moon landing hoax theories, apparitions of Mary, UFO’s, Jews did WTC, psychic healers, The Da Vinci Code, Left Behind, astrology — history has shown that the general population tends not to exercise critical thought on many things. It’s like watching one Jedi Mind Trick after another, sweeping over the populace with short-lived enchantment.

But then, I often have to include myself in that, I must admit. In other spots where I haven’t done my reading, I’m at the mass media and information market’s mercies, and who has the time to read up on everything? And of course, every argument I make can also be made against my own religion, which makes leaps past rationality full-on into faith. So I shouldn’t judge society too harshly, lest I start sounding like one of those condescending “free thinkers.” It’s something that’s more enjoyable to watch with fascination rather than confront with patronization.

Western Union

.

I needed to send some money back to the Philippines. So I tried Western Union.

First, they charge me $27 to send $110 to Manila. Then, at the end of a tedious form, they tell me that it cannot accept the money transfer till I call their support number and talk to an operator. They give me a 10-digit “control number” without spaces or hyphens. I call the number, enter the number, and wait. After twenty minutes of elevator music from Western Union and much cursing from me, I get a message saying they cannot accept my call, please try again in fifteen minutes. So fifteen minutes later, I try again, and must wait another ten minutes. I surprise myself with my calmness as I tell the operator who answers, “This is not the service I was expecting. I’ve been charged too much to wait too long. Please cancel this transfer, and delete my account.”

Screw Western Union. What other US-Philippines money transfer alternatives are there, while Paypal Philippines has yet to materialize? I’m looking in Xoom’s direction based on Yuga’s experiences.

The Impactor Hits

.

Happy Fourth of July! The impactor has hit Comet Tempel 1. Here are a couple of initial fuzzy screenshots from my rather jaggy NASA TV feed:

The left photo is from the flyby craft mere seconds after impact, and the right photo is from the impactor craft just minutes before it hit. Here are better images from SpaceflightNow.

Now, the flyby craft is in “shield mode” as it passes through the comet’s coma, facing its cameras away from the blast of icy particles surrounding the comet nucleus. After it gets past that, it turns towards ground zero on the comet surface and gets the highest resolution photos of the impact yet. So far, the JPL people are saying that the impact is coming out bigger and brighter than any of them expected.

More links:

The Impactor Approaches

.

Impactor Away! NASA/JPL’s Deep Impact has released its impactor spacecraft towards comet Tempel 1. At this moment the impactor is mere minutes from impact, and has just finished the last of three adjustment maneuvers to ensure it strikes the comet. I’m watching NASA TV’s live feed right now, and checking the latest raw imagery from the spacecraft.

If the urban light pollution weren’t so bad over DC, I’d go outside and try to locate the comet, but the internet is giving me a decent secondhand experience.

Fourth of July Napkins

.


(mo_155_.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)

4th of July napkins with the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, and the Declaration of Independence. Wipe your mouth with freedom!

Washington Monument Grounds Reopening

.

From WaPo: Washington Monument Subtly Fortified. The monument grounds have been closed off with ugly fences and walls for over a year now, while largely undocumented security enhancements were installed, but it looks like the walls finally come down on Monday, July 4th.

No more ugly Jersey barriers surrounding the asphalt strip around the Monument; the new security wall draws its inspiration from the “haha” walls of Old Europe: low stone barriers of granite which blended into rolling hills, providing a subtle separation from the surrounding landscape without interrupting the view. (The “Ha Ha” in “haha wall” ostensibly came from the reaction upon seeing hapless wanderers blunder into the barrier due to its being so well-hidden.)

I look forward to checking out the newly relandscaped grounds when they open on Independence Day. That area has been closed off to DC for far too long. Hopefully the asphalt strip around the base of the Monument will still be as great for rollerblading as it was two years ago.

A Long Weekend, Suddenly Free

.

The plan was to take the train up to New Jersey to spend the next three days with Amy and her folks, far away from tourist-season-DC. But Amy took ill, so I cancelled my tickets at the last minute, and suddenly I have the 4th of July holiday all to myself. A neighbor has tickets to some shindig on the roof of the Department of Labor, so the night of the 4th itself is handled, but otherwise I’m using this time to kick back and relax a bit after what has been a very hectic June.

So I only did four things today: I napped, I rollerbladed around a bit, I took impromptu photos of Pandora, and I cut off my sideburns, which were getting kind of long and annoying. I’m just not a sideburns type of guy.