207th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society

[mikeemmert]

That starts today (Sunday 1-8-06) in Washington, DC: <br /><br />http://www.aas.org/<br /><br />First up: The AAS Statement on the Teaching of Evolution. That's above the statement on the Vision for Space Exploration, the statement on the NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences Senior Review, several Hubble announcements...they are also forced to announce a statement endorsing the American Geophysical Union's Statement on Climate Change.<br /><br />So the AAS has seen that creationism and ID is an attack on all science. That's true. If you believe the Earth is flat and the sky is 6000 years old, then you'll believe anything.<br /><br />I'll admit, the rise of fundamentalism took me by surprise. I should have known. I got into a minor short-lived debate with a leading Secular Humanist about the date the religious right launched it's attack on intelligence and we quickly agreed that it was a little ambiguous but sometime around 1979 / 1982. My source was Time magazine, he had other sources.<br /><br />They've been working on this for some time, hiding their agenda and spreading their "vision" through church contacts and by word of mouth. Inefficient, but effective over a long period. This was the "vast right wing conspiracy" Hillary was talking about. I'll be honest...I didn't take it seriously enough. Science is in trouble.<br /><br />Anyway, a bunch of time is going to be wasted having to answer these people. I was hoping it would be like previous years, with all kinds of exciting announcements coming out. I am hoping the neccessary political commentary won't drown out the announcement of Xena's mass, which has been creating white-knuckle suspense for me.<br /><br />The political stuff is annoying static, but it has to be done.

 

[harmonicaman]

A couple of really cool items have been released:<br /><br />From Robert Sanders, (this name rings a bell), University of California - Berkeley - <br /><br />Milky Way Galaxy is warped and vibrating like a drum<br /><br />and:<br /><br />Source: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Released: Mon 09-Jan-2006, 10:00 ET <br /><br />Mystery Solved: High-Energy Fireworks Linked to Massive Star Cluster<br /><br />Both these items probably deserve their own threads!<br /><br />...and I think they're just getting started!<br />

 

[mikeemmert]

Thanks for this post. These are interesting stories. They certainly do deserve their own threads. A drumhead 3,000,000 octaves below middle C...and did we miss a supenova in our own galaxy?<br /><br />Stay tuned (at audio frequencies!)!