“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

Jack Kerouac, On the Road

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Students (Fellow Learners)-

You’ve probably heard that I’m leaving the Day School this Summer. While that’s true, I want you all to know that it has absolutely nothing to do with you or any of our classroom experiences and not based in any negative situation, etc.

First, I want to thank you all so much for the incredible experience I’ve had as your teacher, your advisor (Squiffins!) and your co-learner. I’ve learned more about myself as a person and as a teacher than I’ve learned during any one segment of my life. You all are amazing teachers and I’ll never forget any of you.

Second, I am expecting big things from each of you. I know what you’re capable of and how much we need you to fix the things my generation goofed up on and to help us learn more about the universe.

Third…

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them; disagree with them; glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Now YOU go change the world…

Beyond awesome for so many reasons…

Frothy Magnetic-Bubble Sea Found at Solar System’s Edge: “The edge of the solar system may be a frothy sea of giant magnetic “bubbles,” a new NASA study says.

The new findings may mean that our system’s magnetic barrier—once thought to be a smooth shield—may be letting in more harmful cosmic rays and energetic particles than previously thought.”

Head over and read the whole piece. Fascinating.

Think about the implications for astronauts traveling to Mars… how might this impact our ability to one day visit other planets?

Observations: Two New Superheavy Chemical Elements Formally Recognized: “The elements with atomic numbers of 114 and 116 have been recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), which credited a Russia–U.S. collaboration with their discovery.”

Now, what to name them??

Hmm… squirrelium and griffinium sound good to me.

Here are the instructions:

X-Wing Fighter from Office Supplies

Fantastic.

Striving for the Speed of Light : Starts With A Bang: “It’s always easy to point out the difficulties with a dream. The stars, after all, are so incredibly far away, that the distances are, well, astronomical.”

Great post!

Aaron O’Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object | Video on TED.com: “Physicists are used to the idea that subatomic particles behave according to the bizarre rules of quantum mechanics, completely different to human-scale objects. In a breakthrough experiment, Aaron O’Connell has blurred that distinction by creating an object that is visible to the unaided eye, but provably in two places at the same time. In this talk he suggests an intriguing way of thinking about the result.”

My mind is blown.

Love this pic for some reason (maybe b/c I’m finally judging Madeline)…

SDS Field Day 8th – chris harrelson – Picasa Web Albums

Great shots all around!

CfA Press Room: “Cambridge, MA – Today, astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created. Taking more than 10 years to complete, the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) also is notable for extending closer to the Galactic plane than previous surveys – a region that’s generally obscured by dust.”

Wow! This took 10 years to complete and gives us realistic 3D coordinates of the 43,000 galaxies 380 light years from earth.

If you’re wondering where we are, we’re running on the X Axis (horizontal) through the middle of the map.

Amazing.

Supernova Sonata from Alex Parker on Vimeo.

Observations: The Real Explosions in the Sky: Supernovae Translated into Music [Video]: “What does a supernova sound like? Hopefully we will never find out directly—getting within earshot of an exploding star is probably a bad idea. “

Incredible! Head over to the link above and see how they did it.