APOD

APOD brings us...

Are the nearest galaxies distributed randomly? A plot of over one million of the brightest "extended sources" detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) shows that they are not. The vast majority of these infrared extended sources are galaxies. Visible above is an incredible tapestry of structure that provides limits on how the universe formed and evolved. Many galaxies are gravitationally bound together to form clusters, which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters, which in turn are sometimes seen to align over even larger scale structures. In contrast, very bright stars inside our own Milky Way Galaxy cause the vertical blue sash.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Sunset on Mars

From NASA, via the Spirit rover on Mars:

A Moment Frozen in Time

On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. This small panorama of the western sky was obtained using Pancam's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer color filters. This filter combination allows false color images to be generated that are similar to what a human would see, but with the colors slightly exaggerated. In this image, the bluish glow in the sky above the Sun would be visible to us if we were there, but an artifact of the Pancam's infrared imaging capabilities is that with this filter combination the redness of the sky farther from the sunset is exaggerated compared to the daytime colors of the martian sky. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth is, the Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from the Earth. The terrain in the foreground is the rock outcrop "Jibsheet", a feature that Spirit has been investigating for several weeks (rover tracks are dimly visible leading up to Jibsheet). The floor of Gusev crater is visible in the distance, and the Sun is setting behind the wall of Gusev some 80 km (50 miles) in the distance.

This mosaic is yet another example from MER of a beautiful, sublime martian scene that also captures some important scientific information. Specifically, sunset and twilight images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into the atmosphere the martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. The long martian twilight (compared to Earth's) is caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere.

Heinlein quotes

Hat tip to Instapundit for the pointer to this great collection of Robert A. Heinlein quotes. The following examples, and many more, can be found here.

One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.
  -Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love

An armed society is a polite society.
  -Beyond This Horizon

The supreme irony of life is that no one gets out of it alive.

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.
  -Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
  -Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love

“Love” is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
  -Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land

Does history record any case in which the majority was right?
  -Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love

Listen up!

The National Guard Experience has Ten Golden Rules for Returning Home for Guardsmen returning from deployment, and their families. It's very funny...but practical and open as well. One sample (but got read the rest!):

I. Wives, Listen up. Seriously, if I could only list one rule, this would technically be it. BE PREPARED. Uhh, intimately. If you know what I mean. Even if your husband's deployment was only three months to six months, be prepared. If his deployment was a year, God Help you.

As Jean-Paul says: "Anyone who doesn't read these rules, deserves to be a punching bag."

Alice

Arthur Chrenkoff has move vote for "Best Line of the Day":

By the way, you have to be worried when a guy with too much mascara and a snake wrapped around his neck has a keener grasp of basic new millennium geopolitics than so many leading lights of the Democratic Party.

Delicious. Go read the interview with Alice that Chrenkoff posted. A sample:

INTERVIEWER: A lot of people in rock and roll, it's very fashionable to despise George W. Bush. That's not a view you subscribe to, is it?

ALICE COOPER: Well, I think if you're in a war, you don't want a poodle in there, you want a pit bull. I don't think that you want a guy in there going, "Gee, I don't know. Maybe. Could be." I think you want a guy in there who's either going to win it or lose it.

Hail, Alice, indeed!

Future of Iran

From Big Pharaoh (a new blog to me!), courtesy of TigerHawk, some commentary on the recent conservative win in Iran:

Now, ever since the youth of Iran brought Khatami to power, apathy started to contaminate the political veins of those youth who are the only ones capable of bringing the regime down. The youth were busy enjoying the few freedoms that Khatami brought (nail polish, pop music, lax dress codes, etc) and they were busy searching for jobs and getting stoned on mountains around Tehran. The protests of the late 90s seemed to be something of the past. I am hoping that AJ and his radical way of governing will shake the people up again...

I know that what I am saying sounds cruel and inhumane. In fact, who am I to say that the Iranian people have to endure the rule of a hardliner so that they might rise up and usher in another people revolution? However, I just cannot help but think that way even though I know that I would have voted for Rafsanjani to avoid an AJ term if I were an Iranian. Let us hope that... we'll see this one good thing in Ahmadinejad's Iran.

Big Pharaoh's post also includes a pointer to this article, which basically says that Iranian exiles agree with his assessment.

TigerHawk isn't nearly as optimistic; he thinks the conservative win signals the end of gradual (and improving) change. I'm sure TigerHawk is right about the end of gradual change, but I sure hope he's wrong (and Big Pharaoh is right) about the impact of this election on the probability of near-term revolution in Iran. I'm reminded, ever-so-slightly, of the history of the United States: it was a series of "conservative" moves by the British to clamp down on the upstart Americans the was the immediate provocation for the American Revolution. I'd like to believe that something similar may result in Iran...

Update: This is what I get for posting before I've completed my morning reading — I missed this post by Arthur Chrenkoff on the same topic (his conclusion):

Rafsanjani's ambitious plan could not compete, however, with Ahmadinejad's cure-all: increase pensions, raise health insurance, offer farmers interest-free loans, and push up minimum wages - that is, handouts for all. Now watch the mullah-approved brave economic program raise millions out of poverty and revive Iran's stagnating economy.

Iran's economy, already in bad shape, is heading for a meltdown under Ahmadinejad's theo-socialism. The poor might have given him the edge this time, but how happy are they going to be when the promised economic sunshine proves to be a mirage?

Sounds like he's on the same wavelength as Big Pharaoh and I...