I had a couple monster lecture hall classes as an undergrad. They were usually either introductory courses or weed-out courses. TFA is right that by the end of the semester addentance is cut in half. Students either don't need to attend anymore (introductory course) or they have already dropped it (in the case of a weed-out course).
Big U's are THE place to be for grad students and researchers. If you can manage to keep your head above water as an undergrad you will be better acclimated.
That's interesting. The corona's shouldn't be hot enough to support ppI branch fusion*, but the catalyst article seems to indicate that something is going on. Thanks for sharing that.
* proton-proton chain fusion, branch I is as follows: He-3 + He-3 -> He-4 + 2 H + 12.86 MeV
Bullshit. Where is the quantitative explanation for the (obviously magnetodynamic) solar cycle?
This may come as a surprise, but mainstream ivory-tower astronomers (the same ones you claim are persecuting your daring and brilliant theories) have no problem with an MHD-drive solar cycle.
Convection cells in below the photosphere carry charged particles. Moving charge is current. Thus, magnetic fields. Convection cells *in* the photosphere couple to the deeper cells, but become twisted as the sun rotates.
The plasma filaments edging solar flares are exactly the same phenomena we have around the Earth's magnetic poles: aurorae. It's not a conspiracy, man!
Now I will concede that corona heating is not fully understood. EU kooks love to complain, "It's so hot! The energy is coming from somewhere you mainstream guys don't even know about!"
The mainstream folks are OK with the fact that the corona is hot. The sun is fully well capable of making enough energy to heat it. The anomaly isn't where the energy comes from, it's how the energy gets deposited in the corona.
Alfven waves are the popular EU mechanism for coronal heating. I have no problem with this, but you'll have to demonstrate how wave heating can deposit energy in the corona rather than simply propagating clean through.
I'm no solar physicist, but I'd wager that coronal heating draws upon both waves *and* reconnection. Has anyone looked at coronal temperatures at various altitudes/depths through a whole solar cycle?
If it's purely Big Flare reconnection heating, the corona should be clearly hotter during solar maximum.
If it's a "mini flare" reconnection heating is the main mechanism, the lower corona should be hotter than the upper, especially during solar minimum.
If it's wave heating... well.... you'll have to demonstrate how alfven waves would ever dissipate in the corona in the first place. As I understand EM, they'd tend to truck straight through without much heating.
EM phenomena in the sun are well understood. Please don't stir up a fake aura of mystery around solar EM. "Electric Universe" theories are junk science. If you want those theories to be taken seriously, get rid of the junk.
Please take those claims with a healthy grain of salt. For whatever reason, the Electric Universe movement is heavily laden with kooky pseudoscience.
I'm not saying you should discredit it completely. Just treat it with a skeptical eye and separate the reasonable EM phenomena from the ridiculous claims.
Yep! Based on observations of CMB / high-Z supernovae / galaxy cluster lensing, the universe appears to be nearly flat, finite, with accelerating expansion.
If you discredit the CMB portion of the data, it may invalidate that model of the universe, or at the very least introduce more uncertainty.
If what we think of as "CMB" is affected by galactic EM fields, the ratio of dark energy and dark matter to baryonic matter could be way off.
This is a very interesting time to be doing astronomy.
I'd like to give Electric Universe proponents a fair chance, but their theories seem to attract a disproportionate of pseudoscientists and kooks. It's a shame, because this has tainted the entire subject to the point that few will risk their reputation to publish on it.
Maybe this radio background discovery will help (a) discredit the crackpots and (b) give proper science a valid platform from which to investigate EM fields on very large scales.
Sounds like this device would be competing with the netbook and tablet PC market. How about a Maemo device (Nokia 770, N810, etc) with a multi-touch screen? That would be sweet.
Are you sure *MARKET*share means what you think it does? Microsoft only "sells" IE as packaged with XP, Vista and Windows Mobile. Few customers license the Trident layout engine. It's no wonder IE has shit for marketshare.
The Mozilla foundation does pretty well for themselves. Not a huge moneymaker but they're afloat and doing ok.
Opera is also doing great licensing their browser and its components all over the place.
Internet Explorer simply isn't a moneymaker for Microsoft. Microsoft probably spends more money maintaining IE than they do selling/licensing it.
+1. Where I work, some of the old C greybeards are playing with C++ and enjoying operator overloading. Meanwhile, the Fortran gurus are like "So what? We've had overloading since F90 and we still don't use it. Get off my lawn!"
Agreed. One thing I've observed from the 2008 primaries: if you're not supported by a major party, you're not going to do well. There were plenty of other candidates (Gravel, Romney, etc.) whose platforms appealed to pretty good-sized chunks of US citizens, but those guys got left out in the cold by their own political parties.
Another thing I've observed is that most liberals, paleo-cons, and libertarians all agree on one thing: the neo-con republican party's platform is horrible. Ron Paul's fighting to change the GOP from within, which diverse groups might all view as a Good Thing(tm). If the Party is all powerful, don't beat 'em, BE 'em.
Just checking in as another liberal who supports the right to keep and bear arms. Personal responsibility, including self-defense, is needed to keep the US from falling apart.
This is so incredibly true that my current plan for starting a good career after college (especially since I *WANT* to work in academic research or corporate R&D) is to make aliyah and work in the Israeli tech sector.
That might actually work out very well. Play to your strengths! E.g. if you're Californian, you may as well apply at Berkeley. If you're $FOO, don't be too proud to accept a $FOO scholarship. Heck, my Irish-American freshman year roommate had a Puerto Rican scholarship simply because his parents happened to on vacation there when he was born.
Not sure what your particular field is, but I remember seeing lots of Israeli representation at the last couple AUVSI conventions. For you as a new Israeli, though, you'd probably be limited to employment in a non-defense related jobs at first. When it comes to unmanned robotic systems, most anything that's not bolted to a factory floor is a military application.
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I had a couple monster lecture hall classes as an undergrad. They were usually either introductory courses or weed-out courses. TFA is right that by the end of the semester addentance is cut in half. Students either don't need to attend anymore (introductory course) or they have already dropped it (in the case of a weed-out course).
Big U's are THE place to be for grad students and researchers. If you can manage to keep your head above water as an undergrad you will be better acclimated.
That's what *SHE* said!
Experimentalists, as opposed to theorists.
That's MAVERIC without the "k".
-- Subaru-driving Marshall engineer.
That's interesting. The corona's shouldn't be hot enough to support ppI branch fusion*, but the catalyst article seems to indicate that something is going on. Thanks for sharing that.
* proton-proton chain fusion, branch I is as follows:
He-3 + He-3 -> He-4 + 2 H + 12.86 MeV
Bullshit. Where is the quantitative explanation for the (obviously magnetodynamic) solar cycle?
This may come as a surprise, but mainstream ivory-tower astronomers (the same ones you claim are persecuting your daring and brilliant theories) have no problem with an MHD-drive solar cycle.
Convection cells in below the photosphere carry charged particles. Moving charge is current. Thus, magnetic fields. Convection cells *in* the photosphere couple to the deeper cells, but become twisted as the sun rotates.
The plasma filaments edging solar flares are exactly the same phenomena we have around the Earth's magnetic poles: aurorae. It's not a conspiracy, man!
Now I will concede that corona heating is not fully understood. EU kooks love to complain, "It's so hot! The energy is coming from somewhere you mainstream guys don't even know about!"
The mainstream folks are OK with the fact that the corona is hot. The sun is fully well capable of making enough energy to heat it. The anomaly isn't where the energy comes from, it's how the energy gets deposited in the corona.
Alfven waves are the popular EU mechanism for coronal heating. I have no problem with this, but you'll have to demonstrate how wave heating can deposit energy in the corona rather than simply propagating clean through.
I'm no solar physicist, but I'd wager that coronal heating draws upon both waves *and* reconnection. Has anyone looked at coronal temperatures at various altitudes/depths through a whole solar cycle?
If it's purely Big Flare reconnection heating, the corona should be clearly hotter during solar maximum.
If it's a "mini flare" reconnection heating is the main mechanism, the lower corona should be hotter than the upper, especially during solar minimum.
If it's wave heating... well.... you'll have to demonstrate how alfven waves would ever dissipate in the corona in the first place. As I understand EM, they'd tend to truck straight through without much heating.
EM phenomena in the sun are well understood. Please don't stir up a fake aura of mystery around solar EM. "Electric Universe" theories are junk science. If you want those theories to be taken seriously, get rid of the junk.
Please take those claims with a healthy grain of salt. For whatever reason, the Electric Universe movement is heavily laden with kooky pseudoscience.
I'm not saying you should discredit it completely. Just treat it with a skeptical eye and separate the reasonable EM phenomena from the ridiculous claims.
Yep! Based on observations of CMB / high-Z supernovae / galaxy cluster lensing, the universe appears to be nearly flat, finite, with accelerating expansion.
If you discredit the CMB portion of the data, it may invalidate that model of the universe, or at the very least introduce more uncertainty.
If what we think of as "CMB" is affected by galactic EM fields, the ratio of dark energy and dark matter to baryonic matter could be way off.
This is a very interesting time to be doing astronomy.
Who is we? Got any peer-reviewed articles?
Please don't confuse the Thunderbolts of the Gods crap with proper science.
I'd like to give Electric Universe proponents a fair chance, but their theories seem to attract a disproportionate of pseudoscientists and kooks. It's a shame, because this has tainted the entire subject to the point that few will risk their reputation to publish on it.
Maybe this radio background discovery will help (a) discredit the crackpots and (b) give proper science a valid platform from which to investigate EM fields on very large scales.
I think Canada is a pretty cool guy. Eh uses the metric system and doesn't afraid of anything.
An even bigger iPod? Nah.
Sounds like this device would be competing with the netbook and tablet PC market. How about a Maemo device (Nokia 770, N810, etc) with a multi-touch screen? That would be sweet.
Are you sure *MARKET*share means what you think it does? Microsoft only "sells" IE as packaged with XP, Vista and Windows Mobile. Few customers license the Trident layout engine. It's no wonder IE has shit for marketshare.
The Mozilla foundation does pretty well for themselves. Not a huge moneymaker but they're afloat and doing ok.
Opera is also doing great licensing their browser and its components all over the place.
Internet Explorer simply isn't a moneymaker for Microsoft. Microsoft probably spends more money maintaining IE than they do selling/licensing it.
"Only approved last month"? Sounds like the iPhone is prior art. Too bad, patent troll.
Don't be so elitist. Engineers can operate with both systems of measurement. Can't you?
P2P can't handle live broadcasts.
+1. Where I work, some of the old C greybeards are playing with C++ and enjoying operator overloading.
Meanwhile, the Fortran gurus are like "So what? We've had overloading since F90 and we still don't use it. Get off my lawn!"
No, certainly not a neo-con Republican. The government isn't needed to grant rights; it merely recognizes them.
Agreed. One thing I've observed from the 2008 primaries: if you're not supported by a major party, you're not going to do well. There were plenty of other candidates (Gravel, Romney, etc.) whose platforms appealed to pretty good-sized chunks of US citizens, but those guys got left out in the cold by their own political parties.
Another thing I've observed is that most liberals, paleo-cons, and libertarians all agree on one thing: the neo-con republican party's platform is horrible. Ron Paul's fighting to change the GOP from within, which diverse groups might all view as a Good Thing(tm). If the Party is all powerful, don't beat 'em, BE 'em.
Just checking in as another liberal who supports the right to keep and bear arms. Personal responsibility, including self-defense, is needed to keep the US from falling apart.
Ah yes, the Katz filter. One of the benefits of early membership :)
Mi por unu bonveno nia novaj esperantlingvanoj tiranoj.
That's why sig limits are always important. Kibo's .signature weighs waayyyy too much.
This is so incredibly true that my current plan for starting a good career after college (especially since I *WANT* to work in academic research or corporate R&D) is to make aliyah and work in the Israeli tech sector.
That might actually work out very well. Play to your strengths! E.g. if you're Californian, you may as well apply at Berkeley. If you're $FOO, don't be too proud to accept a $FOO scholarship. Heck, my Irish-American freshman year roommate had a Puerto Rican scholarship simply because his parents happened to on vacation there when he was born.
Not sure what your particular field is, but I remember seeing lots of Israeli representation at the last couple AUVSI conventions. For you as a new Israeli, though, you'd probably be limited to employment in a non-defense related jobs at first. When it comes to unmanned robotic systems, most anything that's not bolted to a factory floor is a military application.