Jupiter Loses a Stripe and NASA is Mystified

The headline from an article published today by NASA is surprising enough: "Big Mystery: Jupiter Loses a Stripe". So after going to the source to verify it, I can say that it appears legitimate. The news item in question talks about the unexplained disappearance of one of Jupiter's two main cloud belts. My first surprise after reading about this event is that this pheomenon is not yet fully understood by NASA. After all these years that Jupiter has been studied and observed by astronomers, I thought they could explain this type of events more easily. As Shakespeare said through Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

But, instead of trying to describe this event in words, it will be much better to show the evidence:

Photos taken by Australian astrophotographer Anthony Wesley

One of the first things that came to my mind when I read this article and saw the photo above was one of the last scenes of the movie "2010: The Year We Make Contact" (in particular the one where Jupiter starts to change and the astronauts are desperately trying to escape its orbit before it is too late). Since I saw that movie (and "2001: A Space Odyseey"), any news about Jupiter sounds interesting to me. Especially if there are any visible changes through our great distance apart!

This event also reminded me of another news item I follwed way back in July 1994, when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 had a collision with Jupiter, which was recorded in a series of spectacular photos taken by the Hubble telescope. That was the first time that an extraterrestrial collision of objects in our solar system was observed and recorded directly. The next picture shows the mark left by that impact on the mighty planet (the mark seen near the top, a bit left of the centre of the image)

Hubble Space Telescope Jupiter Imaging Team

And the following image shows the series of impact sites on Jupiter when they occured as seen through an infrared image taken by the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain on July 25, 1994. (NASA has a very good compilation of Images from Comet (SL-9) Collision with Jupiter, the one below is only one of those).

In total, there have been two major "significant" events, observable from Earth, in Jupiter, in the last 16 years. Who knows what else, and how much more is happening in our solar system that we do not know?

"Discovering" Jimmy Page's music

Recently I was shopping in the only type of store I cannot resist: second-hand music & media shop. As I was going through the hundreds and hundreds of used CD's, I found two Jimmy Page albums that I had not seen before. And since Page is my favourite guitar player (in my opinion the best of all lead guitars in rock) buying those CD's was a no-brainer, so I left the store with the two albums plus two others from Bryan Ferry, but that is a story for another time.

I was really surprised when I listened the first album Coverdale - Page (from 1993). It was like finding some new recordings from Led Zeppelin that had been left behind in some attic or old chest after they disbanded. Whoever likes "heavy" rock or Led Zeppelin will very likely enjoy this album as well. After doing some research on David Coverdale, it turns out that he was the lead singer of Deep Purple (in their last years) and the founder and lead singer of Whitesnake. All the songs in this album were written by both of them. It really is such a pity that this record did not get more recognition and acceptance. It is great!

The second album I bought was completely different. It has a very strong influence from the blues, which I also like a lot as well, but no traces of any of the "typical" rock sounds from Page. As a matter of fact, at first I thought the disc was a mistake; it had to be from another CD that was mixed up with this one. Specially since the CD cover was this:

This image was so incongruous with the music. When Page was playing his famous double-neck guitar, his music was very different and it has nothing to do with the music in the album per se. But the music in the album I bought is very good and almost pure blues, which is the basis for so much of rock'n roll. However, it is not rock, let alone heavy rock.

Given these inconsistencies, I proceeded to find out more about the album and now, thanks to Wikipedia, I know that what I bought was the disc number 2 of a two-disc compilation titled "Hip Young Guitar Slinger (jimmy page and his heavy friends)". This album is made of studio recordings made before Page was part of Led Zeppelin as the songs were recorded between 1962 and '66. The compilation itself was produced in 2000. So I now know that Jimmy Page was working as a studio musician and producer of blues records before he became lead guitar of one of the best rock'n roll bands.

One good thing for me about this finding, among others, was to confirm that my sense of music and time are still working fine. Somebody or some record company decided to sell the two records separately and used one of the famous Page photos to sell the album. The image below is the one that appeared in the original album sleeve:

This is totally congruous with the music inside, and not only that, but one can learn that he was recording and playing with very good company from the beginning. This album (disc 2) has 3 songs of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Other 7 songs are with Eric Clapton and two more with Jeff Beck. Another thing that surprised me was to discover that Jeff Beck, as well as Jimmy Page, started playing the blues. It is well known that Clapton was "formed" by the blues, but now, it is clear that the influence of the blues is much more extensive than I had imagined. In the songs on this disc it is evident how much rock owes to this genre. I really recommend this album, especially if you happen to like the blues.

Wikipedia tells us that two of the songs with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers ("I'm Your Witchdoctor" & "Telephone Blues") were produced by Page and that Clapton is the person actually playing the lead guitar. Now, I do not know for sure the role that Page had in other songs of this album (whether he was the producer or one of the guitars). Unfortunately the CD has no further details other than the song names. Would someone know in which songs Page played and/or which ones he produced?

In any case, this disc 2 of the "hip young guitar slinger" is a fascinating example of the musical beginnings of these "heavy friends" of J. Page and a very interesting example of the British blues from the first part of the '60s.

Celebrating Lady Ada Lovelace Day!

Through my travels in the Net today, I found out that March 24 is the day for celebrating and blogging about my heroine Lady Ada Lovelace!

It was quite a surprise for me to find out after more than 30 years in the Information Technology (IT) field that there was a day dedicated to honouring her memory by writing something about her and other notable women in technology. So, here I am rushing to write something before the end of the day. I cannot let the occasion pass me by.

For some people in IT, she is well known, as she is the reason the US Department of Defense named a programming language Ada. She is also well known for people interested in programming in general, as she is generally considered the first programmer ever, even though she died before digital computers, as we know them, were invented. However, she did write was is considered the first computer programme as she wrote an algorithm for the analytical engine that Charles Babbage invented.

Since today is a day to celebrate other women in technology, I consider it a "must" to remember and celebrate anoter woman who made a great contribution to the IT field: Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. She is another of my heroines as she is recognized as the author of a programming language that was the bread and butter of computer systems during the 1970's and 1980's. (As a matter of fact, there are still a good number of "legacy" systems written in it). I'm talking, of course, of COBOL, one of the first languages I learned in University, which is still in operations and is one of the oldest programming languages still used worldwide. Grace Hopper created the specification for COBOL in 1959 and it really was the workhorse language for most of the companies and governments that were developing application systems. Another interesting trivia fact about her is that she is the person who first used the term "bug" and "debugging" in programming. The funny part is that it was actually an insect she found that was causing problems with the system and the rest is history...

[As an aside, it made me very happy to learn today as well that the US Navy has named a destroyer in her honour, the USS Hopper (DDG-70). This is only the second US Navy warship to be named for a woman. The USS Hopper was launched on Jan. 6, 1996, by her sister.]

So, how come women have been so prominent in the field of programming languages? My guess is that the natural tendency that women have to excel at languages must have helped. And of course, it doesn't hurt that many women, and certainly women such as Lady Ada and Rear Admiral Grace Hopper must have had beautiful, logical minds.

PBS Experimenting with Facebook screening

I read that PBS will be screening the "Earth Days" documentary in Facebook, ahead of their broadcast on TV. This will happen on Apr. 11 (from 8 to 9:45 pm).

The idea seems to have good potential for more interaction with the audience as people will be able to ask questions and chat in real time with the producers. It sounds intriguing to me, although, I'd prefer to watch it on TV. In any case, it shows that PBS is trying to connect to younger audiences which is really good.

The documentary will be about the beginnings of the environmental movement. Can it be that this year is actually the 40th anniversary of Earth Day? (Apr. 22). I guess we have improved in some areas, but there is still so much left to do...

More information about the event is available in the Earth Days social screening in Facebook.

USA Political TV (C-Span) History on the Web

I never imagined that I would start this blog referring indirectly to some political news. But this was so important to my point of view that it just needed to be captured here.

I just read a fascinating article from the New York Times, "C-Span Puts Full Archives on the Web", written by Brian Stelter and published yesterday.

The 3 channels that comprise C-Span have put on the web all their video recordings starting from 1987! That is such great news, especially for American citizens, but also for people from other countries, like me, because it can start to compel other governments to follow suit (one can only hope). It makes me envious of their democratic system. And I really admire the fact that the USA shows this openness for their government proceedings. Well done for them! And indirectly for the rest of us as well, as the access is open to the Internet.

The article talks about some Romanian bloggers who discovered and published an address given by their president to the United Nations in 1990. I wonder if there is anyhing from either one of our Canadian prime ministers or Mexican presidents. Time to dig in or should I say, time to dive into this ocean of data.

To see what all the fuzz is about, just follow the link to the C-Span video library:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/