Where is the bug?

There is always a big chance of an error or bug when dealing with large array of data (which in my case is over 180,000 files). It's sad when just one file is happened to be corrupted and you miss it.

And then, you get an email from your collaborator mad at you cause his code crashed because of this f***g file.

Remind me to look through all the set more carefully next time.


P.S. to make this post less sad, there is a link to a Nature paper about the possible discovery of the Dirac's monopole. Great day indeed.

Dirac's monopole?

Mars.

I found this video today. 

I really wish there would be much more space exploration enthusiasts like Robert Zubrin.

We all need it. It is our salvation..

 

Midnight thoughts

One of the most awesome achievements of human civilisation is the ability to create wonderful technologies that help us in every possible way. Look at the image below. We can not still see the planet itself, but with the help of the telescopes and detectors we can study remote planets orbiting other stars. Isn't it amazing?!

This is the latest announced exoplanet Kepler-78b (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131105.html) - hot volcanic Earth-size planet orbiting the star at the orbit 40 times close to the star than Mercury to the Sun. It will take a while to find and study the planet just like our own old mother Earth (sounds more like Russian expression :) , but we will do it.

We should. Otherwise we will extinct. This is evolution like you it or not.

P.S. small rhetorical question..how often do we look at the stars and dream of undiscovered new world, fascinating world?  

A rare snapshot of a planetary construction site (MPIA press release)

"Planets are formed in disks of gas and dust around nascent stars. Now, combined observations with the compound telescope ALMA and the Herschel Space Observatory have produced a rare view of a planetary construction site in an intermediate state of evolution: Contrary to expectations, the disk around the star HD 21997 appears to contain both primordial gas left over from the formation of the star itself and dust that appears to have been produced in collisions between planetesimals – small rocks that are the building blocks for the much larger planets. This is the first direct observation of such a "hybrid disk", and likely to require a revision of current models of planet formation."

Read about the new discovery here.

Tereshkova's flight logbook

For the first time the flight logbook of Valentina Tereshkova is now uploaded to the Web. You can find it here and read it if you know Russian. If you don't, I will be able to translate the most interesting parts a bit later.

I found very interesting web page - the project "ChronoZoom" - an open-source project which allows you to create, explore and learn different "timelines". Here is an example.

So, basically you can create whatever timeline you want and share it with your friends, colleges, dogs,.. and explain everything that happened in your life or Universe in a very simple way.

It is still beta version, but even now it looks cool.
http://join.chronozoom.com/

This is a very nice picture.

Even from astronomical point of view. Let's assume that we meet aliens. Who will greet them? Americans, russians, germans? The only answer that can exist is HUMAN. Countries are just the territories allied by the same history and slightly different cultural traditions than neighbouring once. Built to defend their own interests from invaders.
But we all have something common. DNA and one tiny planet. We have to change.

And we all still can not grow up from our childish perspective of other people.  
That's not the way you can go to outer space and explore the galaxy.

Think about it. Because in most of situations 'many' overweights the 'one'.