Video hosting services?

Google Video is going to cease hosting new videos, so I need a new service to compress and host videos for my classes. Unfortunately Wikipedia's comparison charts of video services doesn't list all the things I want to know about. Here's what I'm looking for; the first few are required characteristics, "preferred" are additional characteristics I really want, and "optional" are bonuses.

1. Unlimited file size (or at least 500MB), unlimited time (or at least 90 min)


2. Cross-platform compatible


3. No additional software required for viewing (things like Java, Flash are ok since most computers have them already)


4. Compresses videos as well as sharing them, so they're faster for students to download on slow internet connections


5. No bandwidth cap, or 1.5GB/week / 8GB/month minimum.


6. Free to me and viewers


7. No account required for viewing (preferred)


8. I can choose not to display my name/account with videos I post (so I can use the same account for personal use) (preferred)


9. I can choose to not allow students to find other videos that I posted (ditto the purpose) (preferred)


10. I can choose to unlist videos I post, so no one but my students with a direct link are likely to find them (for intellectual property reasons) (preferred)


11. Download of video available (preferred)


12. Organization of videos into "folders" so I can post a link to the folder and the student can access all videos for that class in one place, and not the videos for other classes (optional)


13. Tool to upload multiple videos simultaneously (optional)


14. Upload tool allows me to resume paused or interrupted uploads (optional)

Anything else I should be looking for? Who do you like that has these? Google Video had 1-9. YouTube already fails at #1. I started looking at Vimeo and RapidShare, but don't know much about them. Edit: RapidShare seems a bit sketchy, Vimeo has weekly bandwidth limits below what I need.

Hubble problems

The Hubble Space Telescope is currently dead. The electrical circuit that controls ALL the cameras on the telescope, called Side A, has ceased functioning. The HST also cannot send any data. It can however be pointed in different directions (for what purpose though?), and can otherwise communicate with mission control. The HST also has a backup circuit, called Side B, that can provide power to the cameras - everything on these ships is built with multiple redundancy, even when they're serviceable. Unfortunately Side B hasn't been tested in orbit in the 18 years Hubble's been up - we knew Side A was working, so why mess with a good thing? (It did test out good before launch though.) They're currently working on switching over to Side B, but it may take a few days if all goes well, or a few months if not.

Meanwhile the servicing mission for mid-October has been put on hold. If they're not able to bring Side B online, I'm sure they will alter the postponed mission's objectives to start with fixing either Side A or B, or possibly installing a Side C, whichever seems easiest.

Tablet PC advice?

I'm looking to buy a tablet PC for work. The models I've seen good reviews of are Lenovo Thinkpad, HP Pavilion, and Fujitsu LifeBook. What I want in one, in order of priority is as follows.

1. Dual-core processor


2. High RAM


3. Windows XP


4. Sturdy and reliable


5. Lightweight


6. 5 hour battery life


7. Large hard drive

Specifically I will be using the tablet to give a presentation in PowerPoint, which I'll be annotating with the stylus, while running Camtasia (screencasting software, which records what's presented on the screen along with an audio track). I will then need to render the Camtasia recording and post it online. Camtasia's a memory-hog, hence the first three items on my list.

I have a $3,000 budget limit, and the money's not mine, so I'm looking for the best I can get.

Got any advice for me, or links to reviews?

US News Best Colleges

The US News and World Report yearly college rankings are out. You can view the lists, or search on the college of your choice.

Magic Pen

Next time you need some procrastination, check out the "crayon physics" -style java game Magic Pen. Your goal on every level is to get a circle (or sometimes a square) to move to touch a flag. You do this via drawing simple physics-type tools. The one thing it's lacking is a pause button, that would really help.

If you ever get stuck on a level, you can skip it via the menu, but you cannot submit your "score" (number of shapes used) until you beat all levels. Once you beat all 25 levels (took me a full day of procrastination), go back and see how many different ways you can solve the same level. After a bit you'll build up a mental "toolbox" of different techniques for each level, and you can go back and see how to force a square peg into a round hole.

Crayon Physics

I've been wanting a tablet PC for a while now, and this game (page currently lagging) only reinforces it. In case the page won't load, here's a review of it, and below is a demo.



I've seen tools like these accompanying textbooks before, but unfortunately never had one with a book that I chose. I should write to a few publishers to see if they have demos I can download. Unlike this "game" version, they're generally designed to accompany a Physics I course, so students can explore physical situations without friction, or so that students can perform online labs. (I'm curious about doing online labs and wish to explore the possibilities, but I will take a lot of convincing before I'm willing to do it.)

Planetarium Software?

On the off chance that someone following this blog has an answer for this, I'm looking for planetarium software for an online class I am developing for Fall 2008.

Minimum Qualifications

1. Cheap, or free with a good textbook


2. Works on Windows XP and Mac OSX.4


3. Ground can turn on and off


4. RA/Dec coordinates


5. Alt/Az coordinates


6. Sun and all planets


7. Messier objects


8. Ecliptic line


9. Effectively infinite time in the past and future


10. Asterisms ("constellation" connect-the-dots drawings)


11. Constellation borders (outlines)


12. I can learn it with a user's manual and/or FAQs


13. Students can learn simple tasks with hand-holding

Preferred Qualifications

1. Free


2. Works on Vista and all other platforms


3. NGC and other deep-sky objects


4. Images of objects


5. Ability to move forward in 1-day increments without showing intervening time, so as to demonstrate
   
   1. the analemma,
      
   2. which constellation the Sun is in throughout the year,
      
   3. which constellations are visible at night throughout the year,
      
   4. the motion of the planets relative to the Sun, and
      
   5. the motion of planets relative to the sky.
   
   
6. Ability to move forward in other time increments, such as a year


7. Precession


8. Ability to lock on an object (such as the Sun or Moon) while progressing time


9. Easy to learn

FWIW, Google Sky fails Minimum #9, Starry Night Pro 3.1 passes Minimum #1b but fails Minimum #2 and may fail others since I can't run it to find out, Starry Night Pro 6.2 fails Minimum 1, I suspect The Sky 6 fails Minimum 1 but I haven't done enough research to be sure, and Stellarium appears to fail Preferred 6. Some combination of Stellarium and Google Sky appears to be what I'm going to have to deal with at this point.

X-posted a few places

Science Songs

I collect science songs so I can play them for my students - sure they're college age, but who doesn't appreciate a couple F-bombs about fractals?

For the younger crowd, here's some clean ones that teach you science in 5-minute chunks. Included among them is the original version of "Why Does the Sun Shine?" (popularized by They Might Be Giants).

Chocolate, Caffeine, and Theobromine - Oh My!

Branching from a different discussion about migraines, dehydration, and caffeine, I wanted to look up whether caffeine was dehydrating - I knew it was a diuretic, but I wanted to know if it more directly dehydrated. And then I got sidetracked by an article about a parrot dieing from chocolate overdose. So rather than having any sort of coherent picture for you today, I present you with some snippits of facts about chocolate, caffeine, and theobromine.

• "In healthy adults, caffeine's half-life is approximately 3–4 hours. In women taking oral contraceptives this is increased to 5–10 hours" [Wikipedia, original source] In other words, caffeine affects women on the Pill for twice as long as it does for most other adults, but it probably affects people not on the Pill more quickly and more strongly.


• Caffeine on its own is a stimulant in the body. Caffeine metabolizes in the liver into three different other chemicals - most becomes paraxanthine (84%, takes fat out of storage and into the bloodstream, raising blood sugar levels, and sugar is a stimulant), theobromine (12%, diuretic and a stimulant, is present in chocolate and is why most people mistakenly think that chocolate has lots of caffeine), and theophylline (4%, a good asthma treatment, but in much higher concentrations than produced by caffeine metabolism, also raises blood pressure). Each of these by products appears to be created by removing a CH_3 from caffeine and replacing it with a Hydrogen, the only question is which one gets removed; each of them has further stimulant effects. [Wikipedia: Caffeine, Theobromine]


• Chocolate contains both caffeine and theobromine, but significantly more theobromine, and only about as much caffeine as a cup of decaf coffee. Theobromine is often confused with caffeine however, and the media does not distinguish between the two, so the misconception that chocolate is a significant source of caffeine continues to perpetuate.


• One of the ways caffeine works is that it "competes" with adenosine, so that it essentially stops adenosine from working. Adenosine is a depressant in the human nervous system, and its presence is related to the need for sleep; its lack means that dopamine instead begins to dominate - and dopamine is a stimulant, increasing heart rate and blood pressure.


• In humans, theobromine has less of an effect on the nervous system than does caffeine, but has more of an effect on the heart. In addition, theobromine relaxes smooth muscles (ones that act involuntarily), such as dilating blood vessels (and thereby decreasing blood pressure) and bronchial tubes in the lungs (possibly explaining why I've always felt that caffeinated beverages help when I'm feeling allergic, as I also have allergy-triggered asthma).


• For reasons unclear to me, most animals (including dogs, cats, and birds) process theobromine more slowly than humans, with the result that it affects them more strongly, leading to theobromine poisoning. Do NOT feed your pets any of your leftover holiday chocolates. It could be the last thing they eat.

Well, that's a bunch of disorganized facts for you. :-P I warn you of two things though, (1) "damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not an engineer!" I'm a astrophysicist, not a biologist, so it's possible I'm understanding some of this wrong; and (2) since I'm not on the clock, I used Wikipedia as my primary (nearly only) source rather than peer-reviewed journals, or even authoritative/reputable news sources, and as we all know, Wikipedia's biggest strength and weakness is that anyone can edit it. If you wish to contradict or clarify anything I mentioned here, I'd appreciate a concise quote from another source, as well as a link to it - I'm looking to learn! :)

ETA: Another link here to birds and theobromine.

Thanksgiving Turkey

For a T-day alternative, consider buying an organic turkey. The Eat Well Guide will help you find organic farms and grocery stores near you where you can find one.

How to Destroy the Earth

In case the title doesn't say it all, here's a little quote:

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.

Fools.

The Earth is built to last...

This is not a guide for wusses whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity...

This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.

Best of all, the author has taken into account the new definitions of planet and dwarf planet! Go check it out.

eclipse...

Hm, I think I got my dates wrong. I think the lunar eclipse was early this morning, not early tomorrow morning. Oops. Stupid UT.

Protect public workers' retirement

(Perhaps slightly off-topic at first glance, but not really in the end b/c of how many scientists are public employees either through public institutions of higher education, or through national laboratories.)

"Long ago in days of yore it all began with..."

...some politicians on Capitol Hill deciding that if state and federal employees and their families got Social Security benefits in addition to their pension or retirement investment that it was "double dipping," never mind that everyone else in the US is entitled to both a pension and Social Security benefits, never mind that Social Security is their own money in both cases.

This affects ALL state and federal employees - not just me and all public higher ed workers from faculty to facilities, not just my mother (hoping to retire in 2 years) and all public K-12 teachers and employees from secretaries to security, but even firemen, cops, many EMS workers, garbage men, and so on. Of course there probably won't be any Social Security left by the time I'm eligible for it, but think of all the Baby Boomers out there who have put in 40 or 50 years of faithful service to the public (around 50 in the case of my mother), fighting fires and crayons, who are now told as they approach retirement that they deserve less than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Because of this legislation, the widows of firefighters killed in 9/11 were likely told six years ago they will not, in fact, receive the Social Security benefits that their spouse earned with his or her sacrifice.

So what can you do about it? There are two pieces of federal legislation that my union (the NEA, National Education Association) is working to repeal, called GPO and WEP (Government Pension Offsets and Windfall Elimination Program). The way they are doing this is by bringing pressure to bear on Congressmen nationwide through petitions and letters. What you can do about this is to send a letter online. The letter is already written for you, so it will take less than 10 minutes of your time to fill in your personal information, and you'll be making a difference. Tell your friends and neighbors to participate too.

If you want more information, here's a summary from my State-level union. Spread the word.

Lunar Eclipse Tuesday

Tuesday night / Wednesday morning will be a total lunar eclipse - it starts a little before 5am (Eastern Daylight Savings Time), totality is around 6:30am, and it ends (theoretically) around 8:30am (more precise times and other time zones at the link above). It is visible in the America,s Australia, and Asia, but not in Europe or Africa; in the Eastern US unfortunately the moon will be setting during the eclipse, so you will not get to see all of it.

If you wish to watch it, I recommend dressing warmer than you think and using bug spray, and start out by going out around a half hour before it's supposed to start (so around 4:30am on the East Coast), watch till you get bored, and repeat every half hour. Binoculars or a low power telescope will enhance the experience, but is not required. If you wish to use a camera, set it on a tripod, open the shutter all the way, and bracket from 1/60s to 5s - use a soft release button or a timer to make sure you don't shake the camera when you trigger it. This APOD photo is an example of what you can do; in it, the Moon moved from bottom to top. Since the Moon will be setting for us and is usually towards the South, it will appear to move downwards, or to the right.

Compost vs. Garbage Disposal?

I just found out that my trash service picks up compost materials. But most of the stuff I would compost otherwise, I've got a garbage disposal to get rid of. Which is better for the environment for me to do?

Google Sky

Latest from Google Earth is Google Sky. If you download the Google Earth program, you now have the option to view the sky instead of just the Earth. The images for the sky come from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Palomar Observatory, and the Hubble Space Telescope. The video demo of the sky aspect looks really promising, and I'm in the process of downloading installing it right now (yay Mac version!).

I can't wait until they *really* get with it and include not only visual wavelengths (as SDSS, Palomar, and the HST all are), but also start including IR (such as IRAS and 2MASS) and radio and microwave (like COBE), and so on. All wavelengths are crucial to astronomy, not just what our eyes can see.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the makers of TheSky to sue Google over the name. And if you want a head slapper, find Sally Ride's mistake.

How to Become a Scientist

Just found this resource from an LJ community I follow. It's a discussion of what to do academically to become a scientist. Reminds me of my similar post (concentrating more on the time scales) from 2005.

Planet of "hot solid water"

The BS-factor on this article is really danged high. First off, the actual sources - here's the pre-print abstract for the reference paper by Gillon, Pont, et al. (A&A May 2007), the paper has been accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, but has not yet been published; and an earlier paper by Etangs (A&A January 2007) has already been published and if you're on a college/university campus you can click on "Full Refereed Journal Article" near the top to read the whole thing (I'm currently home and so cannot read it). I have to admit that I cannot read the full articles as of yet, but based upon what I have read I don't see a convincing argument.

Gillon, Pont, et al., and earlier Etangs studied this planet GJ 436b (its star was the 436th object in the GJ catalog, whatever that catalog was, and as the second object in that system it's labelled b) and determined its mass from how much its star wobbled (via the Doppler effect). Etangs predicted an evaporation rate based upon the star's luminosity and determined that the planet would have to have a density of at least 3g/cm³ - if the density were too low, the whole thing would just blow away from the stellar wind. Gillon et al. determined its radius from how much it dimmed its parent star when crossing in front of it (called transiting or eclipsing). Knowing its mass and its radius gives a density whose value is not explicitly stated in what I can see from home, but I'm guessing is in the range of 1-3g/cm³.

Now, I admit that density is a KEY thing when determining the composition of a planet. Gas giants (Jovian planets) have densities around 1g/cm³. Icy dwarf planets and moons (Plutinos, Kuiper Belt Objects, comets) are more like 3g/cm³. Rocky planets (terrestrials) top out the chart at 5g/cm³. However, the first problem in this situation is that icy bodies usually are NOT pure water ice (H₂O) - they're a bunch of dry ice (CO₂), methane ice (CH₄), and probably even some ammonia ice (NH₃). But they're not just water ice, so knowing a body's density does NOT fully specify its composition, just the phase and general class of composition.

Second, there's multiple ways to get the same density. Instead of being a body that's uniformly icy material, it could be high density gas or liquid in the middle, for example Jupiter is believed to have a core of liquid hydrogen. This is less likely than icy material, but it's still a possibility, and I'm not sure if there's enough information to rule this possibility out. Related (objection 2a) is that just because a material is dense doesn't mean it's in a solid state, so even if it were water, it could still be super-dense liquid water.

Which in fact is much more likely than dense ice, since water reaches its peak density at 4ºC - if you cool it any more than that, even to freezing, it becomes less dense. So to reach a high density you CANNOT have what we normally think of as water ice. If perhaps it is solid, it will be some wierd other state of solid water that we should label something other than ice, but I'm more inclined to think that it's a wierd other state of supercooled or superpressurized liquid water - or more likely not water! I think they need a chemist here.

And lastly, calling it ice is deceiving b/c of the temperature claim - if it's hot, it's not going to be ice. In fact, if it's hot I'd expect the water to evaporate!

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." I have yet to see it in this case. There is one case which I am more inclined to believe - Barman has detected water vapor in the spectrum of HD 209458b, though it has yet to be confirmed by another researcher. Spectral analysis is the way to determine the chemical make-up of any material. Until I see this evidence, anything else is just circumstantial.

About Evolution

Thanks to galbinus_caeli for linking this evolution primer. Haven't read it in full yet, but what I have, I like.

Exoplanet data

The furthest discovered exoplanet is OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, at 21,500±3,300 ly distance. However, it is an anomaly, as it was discovered using gravitational lensing, which I believe allows us to detect things much further away than the other methods, so the fact that most exoplanets have been discovered by other methods leads me to think I should throw out lensing-detected exoplanets.

Wikipedia also has a list of all 212 exoplanets discovered to date, that I intend to comb though. It occurs to me that if I do a rigorous job of this, I could submit it as a literature review to a peer-reviewed astronomy journal. One problem is (in addition to getting primary sources for the Wikipedia info) it would require me to confirm that no one else has published the same thing. To that effect, a couple links for me (and anyone else curious):

• ADS Abs - a searchable archive of all published peer-reviewed astronomy papers. I think it stands for Astrophysical Database Service Abstracts, but I could be wrong. Hosted by Harvard.


• Astro-ph - another searchable archive of astronomy papers, not as good a search engine, but includes papers that are in the process of peer-review and aren't yet published. Hosted by Los Alamos National Labs.