@EricFielding@mastodon.social
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

EricFielding

@EricFielding@mastodon.social

Geophysicist at lab in Pasadena, California. Statements and opinions posted by me are my own and not those of my employer. he/him. Also https://mastodon.social/@EricFielding on Twitter

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futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Happy mother’s day to my Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen! She is nearly four years old this summer and the proud mother of nearly 700 beautiful daughters. Here she is today and years ago where her colony had only 30 ants. She has done an amazing job raising a huge colony!

The same queen protects a small pile of brood.

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird Can one queen have 20,000 baby ants? That seems difficult.

sundogplanets, (edited ) to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

Hello Toronto - I'm giving a public talk there in 8 days. Want to hear me yell about satellites for an hour? Come say hi!

EDITED to add: Oops I didn't give image credit! The image in the poster was taken by Joshua Rozells, see APOD link: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220614.html

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@sundogplanets I guess Toronto is a giant city if you are from Canada. Since I live in the Los Angeles area, I have a different perspective.

EricFielding, to space
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

SWOT Satellite Helps Gauge the Depth of Death Valley’s Temporary Lake
#nasa #jpl #swot #water
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/swot-satellite-helps-gauge-the-depth-of-death-valleys-temporary-lake

ZekuZelalem, to random
@ZekuZelalem@dair-community.social avatar

BATTLE FOR THE HORN:
Just here to provide some updates on the geopolitical skirmishing that has involved a number of major players in a race for control and influence of Somalia's coastal frontiers off the Gulf of Aden...which borders the Red Sea and the lucrative Bab El Mandeb strait. That strait has a huge impact on global oil shipments, and has been explored as a possible Israel weapons delivery portal.

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@ZekuZelalem Thanks for your explanation about this topic. The news media in the USA has been ignoring this.

mattferrell, to solar
@mattferrell@mastodon.social avatar

: A $19 Million investment has been made into installing solar panels over irrigation canals in the USA, to generate renewable energy and increase water conservation. What are your thoughts on this plan? News Source: https://cleantechnica.com/2024/04/05/19-million-for-innovative-solar-panel-installation-over-canals-from-investing-in-america-agenda/

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@mattferrell Sounds like a win-win effort to me. The canals already cut across the landscape and have road access. It is not tearing up natural areas with wildlife. I only wonder who is going to be paid to do the installation and who will get the benefit of the electricity that is produced.

ai6yr, (edited ) to food

I believe (at least in the US), today is "everyone has corned beef and cabbage" day. What are you having for dinner tonight?

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @chris_bloke There are many more Irish-Americans than people in Ireland.

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @EricFielding @chris_bloke Yes, about 30 million people in the USA have Irish ancestry and there are only 7 million people in Ireland now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Americans?wprov=sfti1#

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@chris_bloke @EricFielding @ai6yr True, many immigrants from Ireland came to the USA in 1849-1850 during the Potato Famine, which was a long time ago, but some have kept a strong identity as Irish-Americans, especially in Boston and New York.

EricFielding, to random
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

The European Space Agency (ESA) ERS-2 satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere earlier today over the North Pacific Ocean. I used a lot of radar images from this satellite in years past, but I am happy that they were able to de-orbit it and reduce potential space junk. It was some luck that it fell over the 75% of the Earth that is ocean. #ers2 #esa #radar
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/ERS-2_reenters_Earth_s_atmosphere_over_Pacific_Ocean

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

How is it that in 2024, this is still the "save" icon?

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@davidho What would you suggest to replace it?

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Midtown, NYC, 2022.

Too many pixels, too crowded together, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51893928686

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@mattblaze Interesting to see how the lens and camera you used was able to remove the usual perspective distortion. It makes the photo more surreal to my mind, in addition to the geometry of the buildings. The O'Keeffe paintings have more regular perspective.

EricFielding, to random
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

NASA's Mars Helicopter team says goodbye.
https://youtu.be/raOA2MX-XLQ?si=qMQBZpsKM_IvbgxQ

65dBnoise, to space
@65dBnoise@mastodon.social avatar

What is proper to say for , an anthropomorphism but nonetheless an expression of love, is that it stayed in the battlefield erect and functioning until the very end.

The is still alive, and we'll probably be hearing about it for as long as it has power to transmit its beacon and continues to devote a few minutes of 's time every sol to listening for it, which may be well into Martian autumn.

What a journey this has been!

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@65dBnoise Yes, it is sad that helicopter is not going to fly again. It has done so much more than the original mission was designed to do. They have learned so much about how to operate helicopters on Mars that they are including more powerful helicopters in the Mars Sample Return mission planning. signing off.

jds, to random Dutch
@jds@sfba.social avatar

Looping at the rocks this morning. Mostly clear today after a few days of rain and cloud. Things are getting green.

Angular rock formations jut out from high desert landscape
Angular rock formations jut out from high desert landscape

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@ai6yr @tsherrygeo @douglasvb @jds @bosquebill The San Andreas Fault in SoCal has had earthquakes every 150-300 years for probably at least 5 million years, so the deformation near the fault is accumulation of many earthquakes.

EricFielding, to Iceland
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

The Icelandic TV network RUV has a great live webcam that is on top of a hill north of Grindavik and showing the lava flowing into the town. It is sad to see lava reaching people's homes but all the people were evacuated in time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqudj0x0POA

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

Today, 15 January, the eruption has ended. The fissure close to the town stopped flowing after destroying three houses. The larger fissure further north has only a small residual vent activity, but flows yesterday covered the main road and destroyed the hot water pipes bringing heating to Grindavik. The berm or earth wall deflected most of the lava from the northern fissure and was a great effort.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

NASA appears to be desperate to find a way to get Americans to accept sonic booms. Their mission now? How loud can they be all day long before people get really pissed off?

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@lauren Yes, the NASA Space Shuttle caused sonic booms over LA on its way to landing at Edwards Air Force Base in Palmdale. I believe that 1985 was the year they flew the most times, 9 times that year, with 7 landing at Edwards.

EricFielding, to random
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

NISAR, the soon-to-launch radar satellite from NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will measure key Earth vital signs, from the health of wetlands to ground deformation by volcanoes to the dynamics of land and sea ice.

Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR will provide the most comprehensive picture to date of motion and deformation of frozen surfaces in Earth’s ice- and snow-covered environments, collectively known as the cryosphere.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/this-us-indian-satellite-will-monitor-earths-changing-frozen-regions

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Some 'science' photo libraries are...questionable.

This photo claims to be "Ant carrying aphid egg, SEM" colorized to highlight the "egg" but look closely! (https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/370844/view/ant-carrying-aphid-egg-sem)

It's NOT an egg. That's just part of the ant's mouth! Take a look at the second set of photos by Hugo Darras. ( https://flickr.com/photos/fourmis/5004761756 ) you can see this is part of her maxillae, the part she uses to collect liquid.

How did they decide it was an aphid egg? Most aphids don't even lay eggs they give live birth!

Three photos of an ant's head as seen from below. The photos show how the maxillae can extend, it also shows that the "egg" in the other photo was just part of the ant's mouth.

EricFielding,
@EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird I also see a lot of videos on YouTube with crazy interpretations of geology and geophysics. Not quite the same as this site that claims to be science photos, but scientific misinformation is spreading rapidly these days. I don’t know how we can reduce the impact.

18+ cloudguy, (edited ) to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    EricFielding,
    @EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

    @cloudguy looks great! How many people have embroidery machines handy, though?

    clive, (edited ) to random
    @clive@saturation.social avatar

    I recently did a DuckDuckGo search for a Medium post of mine from earlier this month

    "The Laptop That Won't Die"

    I found a site that copied and reused the opening of the essay ...

    ... except they clearly ran it through some English --> OtherLanguageTK --> English translation, producing a rather hilariously garbled version

    The original (free link): https://clivethompson.medium.com/the-laptop-that-wont-die-0c478c3fe46c?sk=dc587d3647aa02107f8b447e01d095f9

    The copy: "The Laptop computer That Received’t Die" https://dutchieetech.com/the-laptop-that-wont-die-my-200-12-year-old-thinkpad-has-by-clive-thompson-nov-2023/

    EricFielding,
    @EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

    @clive That garbled version is hilarious. It requires some thought to figure out what the original meaning of the sentences was.

    douglasvb, to random
    @douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

    Lol found another tracking device in my truck. This one is a installed by the original Toyota dealer. The previous owner paid probably $2500 to that dealer for the privilege of helping the dealer with their asset management.

    It was only connected to the power and ground on the OBD2 port. No hacked ignition circuit thankfully. But they sloppily tapped the OBD2. Hopefully that doesn't cause me issues later.

    EricFielding,
    @EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

    @douglasvb @ai6yr @sciencewrighter I would guess that the dealer would cut off the cellular subscription after some time. Maybe when the original vehicle loan was paid off. It would be bad business decision to keep paying forever.

    EricFielding,
    @EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

    @douglasvb @ai6yr @sciencewrighter I made sure that my 2017 Mazda does not have any cellular radio in it. It cannot phone home on its own. It can only connect to my external phone by Bluetooth or a USB cable, but the phone is still in control of any calling.

    EricFielding,
    @EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

    @douglasvb @ai6yr @sciencewrighter I have used Waze for probably 10 years. They got bought by Google but seem to be staying independent of Google Maps. I paid for an upgrade to get Apple CarPlay working in my car. I think there is supposed to be some kind of firewall between the infotainment system and the main car data bus, so I don’t think Apple or Google can pull much data out of the car. They know so much from the phone anyway.

    EricFielding,
    @EricFielding@mastodon.social avatar

    @douglasvb @ai6yr @sciencewrighter My real concern about vehicles with cellular data radios is how they can be hacked. They are probably more secure now than 6 years ago, but there were demonstrations then of white hat hackers who could connect to a vehicle and control functions including turning off the ignition while it was driving down a road. The firewall was broken then.

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