Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg and generally acknowledged as the inventor of the ebook, has left us. He was only 64.
• That supernova that popped up in M101 about ten days ago keeps getting brighter, and the 8" scope is out in the garage, collimated and ready to roll. I have never seen a supernova (mostly because I've never hunted for the pikers that have appeared in my lifetime) but this is starting to look too good to miss. Brightness should peak in the next few days, and if the clouds would break here for an evening I think it would be reasonably easy to spot.
• White dwarf stars may be able to exceed the Chandrasekahr Limit by spinning rapidly--and as soon as their rotation slows down sufficiently, they collapse and go supernova. Such stars may be more common than we think, and offer a cool SF gimmick for galaxy-level warfare: Subtract a little rotational energy from a super-Chandrasekar white dwarf, and wham! Supernova-on-demand.
• An earlier article from the same site suggests that such spinning white dwarfs may be messing up a long-established luminosity heuristic for measuring the distance to far-off galaxies. If all similar white dwarf stars collapse and blow up at the same mass, their luminosity may be assumed to be about the same. If more massive stars can delay their destruction by absorbing angular momentum along with accreted mass, the metric fails.
• Getting uranium out of groundwater is a good thing--and when you're done, you still have the uranium. (In my view, uranium is just as useful as clean water.) I energetically wonder if this process can be generalized. If so, then anyone could become The Man Who Ploughed the Sea.
• Damn, I'll believe it when I see it, and if I actually see it I may not in fact believe it, but Heathkit is going back into the kit business!
• I've never seen this before and I doubt you have either: A razor-sharp composite photo of the Moon's north pole.
• From whence the above: I could do with more science and less Science Guy, but if you don't visit NASA Goddard's Flickr photostream regularly, you are missing out bigtime. (Site virgins, prepare to lose an afternoon...)
• T'hell with home theater: If this thing is quiet, it could be a spectacular desktop for office apps. (Alas, I see no published spec on how loud it is or isn't.)
• If more ties like this were available, I might wear ties more. (Especially the, er, cable tie.)
• Back in 1948, Bell Labs polled their staff to decide on a name for what may be their most potent invention. Also-rans include the solid triode, crystal triode, and (my favorite) the Tom-Swiftish iotatron. That's just so much cooler than "transistor."
• Hmmm. It seems that Yale scientists may be offering me the choice between being a bald head and a fat head. I may stay where I am.
• But, Miles, it's full of... marshmallows !