## Archive for December 30th, 2009

### This Just In

OK, not really.

Dec. 30, 1924: Hubble Reveals We Are Not Alone

Hubble used Leavitt’s formula to calculate that Andromeda was approximately 860,000 light years away. That’s more than eight times the distance to the farthest stars in the Milky Way. This conclusively proved that the nebulae are separate star systems and that our galaxy is not the universe.

Cosmic though it was, the news did not make the front page of The New York Times. The paper did notice the following Feb. 25 that Hubble and a public health researcher split a $1,000 prize ($12,000 in today’s money) from the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.

### Edifice Wrecks

A little kinetic sculpture for you

### Thtuck! Thtuck!

Tongue in Cheek

In 8-year-old lore, it’s metal poles and mailboxes that you have to watch out for. Frost on wood or rubber doesn’t present such a high risk. Why doesn’t your tongue freeze to your glove when you eat a bit of snow off of that? Why not?

### It’s No Masterpiece

Security Theater

Here’s a little perspective: FiveThirtyEight: The Odds of Airborne Terror

Over the past decade, according to BTS, there have been 99,320,309 commercial airline departures that either originated or landed within the United States. Dividing by six, we get one terrorist incident per 16,553,385 departures.

There is an underlying Maginot mentality to the way the TSA implements most security measures.