I start this rubric inspired by one of my favorite scientific blog: A Quantum Diaries Survivor [focused mainly on particle phyiscs, but you can find interesting discussions also beyond this specific topic]
let´s start with the legendary Richard Feynman and one of his provocative statement:
“Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.”
after italian press didn’t say a word in advance about imminent speech of senator Obama in Berlin => most italian people were probably not informed at all about this important (maybe historical) event, these are the headlines today.
(snapshots taken on 25.07 at 9:00 am from the two major italian newspapers)
Auspico che l´evento venga degnamente seguito in tutta Europa e in particolare in Italia (qui non senza qualche giustificato timore circa lo spazio che dedicheranno i media italiani, tenetemi informato)
Pultroppo ho dovuto rinunciare a presenziare di persona all´evento, ma per pegno seguiró il tutto approfonditamente sul web e dedicheró al fenomeno Obama un paio di post su Tecnopolis. Tra l´altro vi sono un paio di interessanti questioni “tecnocratiche” da discutere come i programmi di politica tecnologica ed energetica di Obama (non privi di punti controversi) a cui spero di dedicare il prossimo post.
E ultimamente gli impegni professionali (dottorato) sono diventati sempre piu pressanti.. da cui il motivo della non regolaritá dei post e del loro livello sicuamente insoddisfacente.
NASA.com - Snapshot of the International Space Station
On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar generators or the radiator panels used to dissipate excess heat, unless directly facing the radar antenna, tend to deflect rather than reflect the radar beam, causing these features to appear on the radar image as dark areas. The radar image of the station therefore looks like a dense collection of bright spots from which the outlines of the space station can be clearly identified. The central element on the station, to which all the modules are docked, has a grid structure that presents a multiplicity of reflecting surfaces to the radar beam, making it readily identifiable. This image has a resolution of about one meter (about 39 inches). In other words, objects can be depicted as discrete units--that is, shown separately--provided that they are at least one meter apart. If they are closer together than that, they tend to merge into a single block on a radar image. Since this image was taken, the station has expanded and is more than 90 percent complete, including a full complement of solar arrays. Image Credit: DLR Read More
Recent Comments
BelfSleby: Wow - very awesome subject. I am goin to write about it too!!
sandrar: Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.
Klystron: No, I didn’t. Perhaps you’re right and more details are given elsewhere. I just would have appreciated just a little more explanation also in that article. Probably because I’m always slightly more interested in methods than in results… :o)
Massimo: About the methods… have you tried to track other publications by the same authors? probably they gave away some technicalities in other and more specialistic journals. Applying the model to only two scenarios doesn’t mean much, although it can be an interesting exercise. It would be interesting to know what results they got for Palestine, Rwanda, Sudan, etc etc…...