life, coding, technology, outdoors, photography
Over on the Geology News blog, I posted two videos I recorded yesterday playing with the new version of Google Earth.
The first video examines Monterey Canyon, an underwater canyon near Monterey, California. The second video is the area that Spirit, a Mars Exploration Rover, landed at in January 2004.
Listening to the cockpit audio of US Airways 1549 is pretty incredible. Listen to how cool Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot, is and how the air traffic controllers don’t really register what, “we’re going to have to put it down in the Hudson” means.
As if Chesley isn’t already a stud, check out this story.
Chesley Sullenberger has a problem. He borrowed a book from the Danville Library – and it’s overdue. To complicate matters, the book was an interlibrary loan from Fresno State.
Sullenberger contacted librarians and asked for an extension on the loan and a waiver on the overdue fine. The reason? The book is in the cargo hold of the US Airways plane that made an emergency landing last month in New York’s Hudson River. Sullenberger is the pilot who made that landing. No one was seriously injured.
Fresno State library officials were impressed with Sullenberger’s sense of responsibility… and waived all fines and fees, even the one for losing the book. The library’s going one step further: when the replacement book goes up on the shelf, it will have a special template in front, dedicating it to Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.
Oh, by the way. The topic of that book? Professional ethics.
I feel like I haven’t had time to breath lately (or even take any photos… this makes me very sad).
First, I recently completed two web page designs for my friend, David Siddiqui..
The first website is for his environmental consulting company, Green Evolution Consulting.
The second site I designed for him is to show case his music, David Siddiqui Music.
Check them out!
Do you see a resemblance?
I really need a haircut.
Here’s a follow up to my post yesterday on the asteroid Apophis. JPL has an interesting little calculator for calculating the effects of celestial bodies impacting with Earth.
After plugging in the parameters that Neal deGrasse Tyson mentioned (100m in diameter, impacting 500 miles away – in 3 miles of ocean), it yielded some pretty insignificant results (besides the tsunami that would be generated).
Your Inputs:
Distance from Impact: 805.00 km = 499.90 miles
Projectile Diameter: 100.00 m = 328.00 ft = 0.06 miles
Projectile Density: 3000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 17.00 km/s = 10.56 miles/s
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 1000 kg/m3
Target Type: Liquid Water of depth 4.57 meters, over typical rock.
Energy:
Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.27 x 1017 Joules = 5.42 x 101 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 2.4 x 103years
Atmospheric Entry:
The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 54000 meters =
177000 ft
The projectile reaches the ground in a broken condition. The mass of projectile strikes the surface at velocity 6.66 km/s = 4.14 miles/s
The impact energy is 3.49 x 1016 Joules = 8.33 MegaTons.
The broken projectile fragments strike the ground in an ellipse of dimension 0.81 km by 0.573 km
Major Global Changes:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth’s rotation period or the tilt of its axis.
The impact does not shift the Earth’s orbit noticeably.
Crater Dimensions:
The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 1.85 km = 1.15 miles
For the crater formed in the seafloor:
Crater shape is normal in spite of atmospheric crushing; fragments are not significantly dispersed.
Transient Crater Diameter: 1.12 km = 0.695 miles
Transient Crater Depth: 0.396 km = 0.246 miles
Final Crater Diameter: 1.4 km = 0.869 miles
Final Crater Depth: 0.298 km = 0.185 miles
The crater formed is a simple crater
The floor of the crater is underlain by a lens of broken rock debris (breccia) with a maximum thickness of 138 m = 454 ft.
At this impact velocity ( < 12 km/s), little shock melting of the target occurs.
Thermal Radiation:
At this impact velocity ( < 15 km/s), little vaporization occurs; no fireball is created, therefore, there is no thermal radiation damage.
Seismic Effects:
The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 161 seconds.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 5.2
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 805 km:
- Nothing would be felt. However, seismic equipment may still detect the shaking.
Ejecta:
Most ejecta is blocked by Earth’s atmosphere
Air Blast:
The air blast will arrive at approximately 2440 seconds.
Peak Overpressure: 138 Pa = 0.00138 bars = 0.0195 psi
Max wind velocity: 0.324 m/s = 0.725 mph
Sound Intensity: 43 dB (Easily Heard)
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discusses the potential effects of an asteroid impact off the coastline of California in 2036.
[Via Geeks Are Sexy]
I’m a huge political junkie, so it’s no surprise that I really want to see Frost/Nixon.
A lot of these are a rehash from my 2008 Year in Review, but this post is for the “Best Photos of 2008” blog topic that is being put together by San Francisco photographer, Jim Goldstein.
I captured a picture of this girl and she ended up leaving a comment on SFist. It turns out, a few hours before the pillow fight, she went through her last chemo session for breast cancer. Her and her friends went out to the pillow fight to celebrate! How awesome is that?
African Crane at the San Francisco Zoo.
Baboon at the San Francisco Zoo.
HDR image captured from the roof of our apartment.
Cops running to break up a fight during the Olympic Torch relay in San Francisco.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Beach in Kauai.
Sunset in Kauai.
Trinity College – Dublin, Ireland.
Hvar Island, Croatia.
Korcula, Croatia.
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Chuck Ragan, Hot Water Music.
Golden Gate Bridge.
The awesome website, Flowing Data, created this amazing visualization of Walmart stores spreading across America. It looks like an outbreak.
Here is a word cloud showing the what I say the most on Twitter. The size of each word is based on the relative frequency that I use it.
Generated with TweetStats and Wordle.
Earlier this evening, I was in a coffee shop prepping for an interview that I have tomorrow afternoon. This older couple sits down next to be and are having a conversation. They sounded hilarious, so I decided to open up EccoNote Pro on my iPhone for a little clandestine recording.
Note: This only thing that’s been done to this file is increasing the playback volume. The voices aren’t garbled. That’s just how the guy really sounded! Awesome. Anyway, they chat for a bit, and then get up and walk out the door. Have a listen!
The MP3 file is 36 seconds long.
[audio:http://daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/crazy_coffee_shop.mp3](iPhone users can click here to download mp3)
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
The annual Macworld expo kicked off today and it will be the last expo that Apple itself is a part of. As expected, Apple released a series of new products today. The Onion reports on one of the more interesting products.
😉
[Via Laughing Squid]
For my birthday, Kerry surprised me by taking me to Moss Beach. We walked around and examined the tide pools and then had lunch at the famous and allegedly haunted Moss Beach Distillery and Restaurant. Top notch!
Afterward, we stayed the night at a nearby bed and breakfast called the Seal Cove Inn. Also a fantastic place.
Seriously, is that NOT the word that I typed?!
These CAPTCHA systems are supposed to prevent automated scripts and robots from registering accounts on websites. If I fail it, does this mean I am a robot?
Our only home. Image by Aaron Escobar.
If you have time, you should read two interesting articles I’ve written over at the Geology News blog, that have been getting quite a bit of traffic and interest.
The article on Yellowstone examines the recent earthquake swarms and discusses the risk of an eruption. The second article on climate change offers a concise history of how we know it’s happening and the causes behind it.
Check them out!
Happy Anniversary!
Exactly 5 years ago this weekend, I moved to San Francisco. It’s crazy how fast time has flown by. What an awesome experience it’s been so far!
MAKE Magazine is now on YouTube! Awesome! Check out this episode of MAKE TV about Cyclecide – a San Francisco art collective.
